If you look across Adam McKay‘s filmography, you’ll see that his comedy usually comes in pairs: Ricky Bobby and Cal Naughton in "Talladega Nights: The Ballad Of Ricky Bobby"; Allen and Terry in "The Other Guys" and hell, even Ron and Baxter" in "Anchorman." And even his latest producing venture on "Fully Loaded" centers on a pair, this time a couple of single Moms (Paula Killen and Lisa Orkin) whose one-night-on-the-town journey for a hook up finds them comedically reflecting on their lives, past relationships, children and more. We chatted yesterday with McKay, and asked him about another one of his famed comic pairs, Brendan and Dale from "Step Brothers," and if we’ll ever get a chance to see them on the big screen again.
In fact, we nearly did. McKay and Ferrell were all ready to go on the followup to their 2008 hit, when the newsroom came calling. "We were literally going to go do ‘Step Brothers 2.’ Paramount wouldn’t make ‘Anchorman 2,’ we had tried a couple of times, I talked with [Will] Ferrell, he wanted to do ‘Step Brothers 2.’ We love that movie ‘Step Brothers,’ it’s one of the funnest ones we’ve ever done, and one of the craziest we’ve ever done. And we’re like, ‘Yeah, let’s go do it,’ " he said.
"But everyone kept saying to us ‘Anchorman 2,’ ‘Anchorman 2,’ and I’m like, ‘Look, before we go do [‘Step Brothers 2′] let’s just make sure we try everything,’ " McKay continued. "Literally our managers and agents were like, ‘It’s a waste of time, they’re not going to do it.’ I’m like, ‘Just check one more time so I know it’s 100%.’ And it so happened they had a movie fall out, and they went back and they were like, ‘Yes, we’ll do it.’ And we were completely blindsided. We had no idea they were going to say that. But it was a good problem to have."
But as fans may know, not only was a sequel in the works, but a rap album as well. With Dale and Brendan busting out the unforgettable "Boats ‘N Hoes" in the film, the idea was to expand that into a full disc of tunes. And McKay told us that not only was it happening, but they had started work with the big-time producer behind hit songs by Katy Perry, Rihanna, Ke$ha, Nicki Minaj and more (and yes, "Boats ‘N Hoes" too). "We actually met with the music producer Lukash [Gottwald], and we actually wrote four or five raps, roughs of them, and were going to release the ‘Step Brothers’ rap album," McKay said. "And I can’t remember what happened, but right in the middle of it we suddenly got super busy and everyone had to walk away and it’s never been revived. We actually were halfway through writing it and Lukash was giving us beats, and we were going to do it."
As McKay finishes rewrites with Will Ferrell on "Anchorman: The Legend Continues" and heads into production next spring, "Step Brothers 2" is still a possibility, but he’s taking a pause to make sure it’s the right thing to do. " ‘Step Brothers 2’ would have been fun, there’s no doubt about it. Maybe someday. Does that idea age? I don’t know. It all depends on how the movie ages. If in five years people still give a shit, maybe we’d do it. We’re not going to do back-to-back sequels though, we’d start to look pretty lame at that point," he said, suggesting that he and Ferrell also want to continue to develop original concepts as well.
But even the mention of the rap album seemed to spark a possible way into the followup. "I think that’s probably the answer, the way to keep it alive, to do that rap album," McKay pondered. "So maybe that merits a phone call, you just reminded me of it. Maybe we should revive it that idea." Let’s hope so.
"Fully Loaded" is available on demand starting today on iTunes, Amazon, Vudu, Google Play, Xbox, PSN, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, AT&T U-Verse, Verizon FiOS, Cablevision, Cox, Charter, and more.