Will Ferrell reveals the original plot for 'Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy' was more of a survival film.

Will Ferrell

Will Ferrell

The 48-year-old actor co-wrote the cult classic with Andy McKay and starred as the titular character in the 2004 hit spoof about a news reader but when he originally began penning the script Ferrell admits he had a completely different story in mind, a comedic version of the 1993 disaster movie 'Alive'

Speaking on 'Late Night with Seth Meyers', he shared: "The first version really is more like the movie 'Alive'. It took place in 1976, the year of our bicentennial - they're having a convention of all the news anchors from across the country.

"So we're flying on a chartered plane, Ron Burgundy of course convinces the pilot that he can fly too and immediately crash-lands the plane into the side of a mountain.

"Part of the reason the accident happened was because he clipped another plane, which also crash-landed, and the rest of the movie is them just surviving and trying to get down off the side of a mountain while being hunted by orangutans because the cargo on the other plane was just orangutans and boxes of Chinese throwing stars.

"So all throughout the movie, we're trying to figure out how to get off the mountain ... but meanwhile other people are dying from their wounds of Chinese throwing star and we can't figure out that orangutans are hunting us. So that movie wasn't made."

Although that movie never happened, the first 'Anchorman' film was a huge success and went on to spawn a 2013 sequel

Ferrell went on to joke the ridiculous shelved storyline could potentially become the third film in the series.


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