With “Anchorman 2” seemingly back in limbo for the time being (or up Paramount’s ass), it appears that the principals behind the camera are moving on.
Rumored earlier this year, and tipped this weekend by Collider, EW is now confirming that comedy director and longtime Will Ferrell associate Adam McKay (“Step Brothers” “Talladega Nights”) is in talks to direct a live-action adaptation of the comic book, “The Boys” for Sony, where he has also set up shop on his upcoming action buddy cop comedy, “The Other Guys” with Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg.
The series, by “Preacher” scribe Garth Ennis, is a superhero satire focusing on a secret CIA group whose mission is to keep tabs on, and sometimes violently punish, out-of-control superheroes. As we noted earlier in the year, it doesn’t seem like an immediate fit for McKay, but then again, we’re not completely familiar with the comic and perhaps the filmmaker has a good comedic take on the already fairly amusing sounding material.
The comic book is evidently super-violent and filled with highly sexualized content, but a comedic spin would at least take it from an NC-17 rating down to an R, no? Though that’s presuming he does put a funny twist on it all and doesn’t attempt his first dramatic picture, but early reports suggest it will be violent and comedic.
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg were hired to write a draft of the script, but apparently moved on to other projects before completing it. The last iteration of the script was penned by “Clash of the Titans” team Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay and apparently has been making the rounds at the studio.
