- Will Ferrell to wacky sports movies

Ferrell held out against that tempting mistress of broad sports comedy for as long as he could, only to find himself back at its doorstep, like a junkie having just slammed his last ration of methadone. And this time, he will lure his The Other Guys co-star Mark Wahlberg into the project as well. Ferrell will be reteaming with director and cohort Adam McKay for Three Mississippi (formerly Turkey Bowl), the story of a neighborly football game that has gotten increasingly contentious everyman. Which means Ferrell will need to go to storage and dust off the “befuddled everyman prone to violent outbursts” temperament, a la Kicking and Screaming. This news comes off news of Ferrell’s teaming with McKay in the buddy comedy Swear To God.

The project does have some promising players with Adam McKay ultimately deciding to helm after working with Ferrell in The Other Guys, and a script from 30 Rock‘s Robert Carlock and Friends producer Scott Silveri. You’ll remember that Friends had a fairly iconic episode with this exact premise in which the gang played the lamest game of touch football ever against each other.

The project should hit theaters by next Thanksgiving, giving Ferrell about seven months to work on his frustrated “DAMMIT!”s before filming begins. (Vulture)

When I first heard the news that Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg were reuniting from The Other Guys to play opposing amateur football coaches in Turkey Bowl, I was mildly excited. Now my mild excitement continues, with the news that Wahlberg’s The Departed compatriot Alec Baldwin has signed on to play Wahlberg’s father.

This goes along with the idea that maybe-director (he’s not attached of yet, but he’s “reserve[d] that right”) Adam McKay wants Turkey Bowl stuffed with celebrity cameos. He also is reportedly trying to get Jeremy Renner and Rob Riggle, with presumably many others as well. Here’s an incredibly long and in-depth plot synopsis, straight from McKay’s mouth:

“”It’s about these two rival families from — we’re thinking Philadelphia but we need to check in with Wahlberg and Ferrell and see what kind of accents they want to do. Alec Baldwin is the patriarch of one of the families, and Wahlberg is his son. He saw the Kennedys playing football on their front lawn at Thanksgiving, and boom, that’s it: “Anything the Kennedys do, we’re doing.” His family starts playing the other family that lives across the park from them. Over the years, Baldwin’s family hasn’t done too well — they own a crappy little bar in town — while the other family, which Will’s character eventually becomes the patriarch of, becomes really successful. The game gets nastier and nastier as the years go on, and Ferrell’s family starts just destroying the other family. After a massive heart attack, Baldwin’s character’s dying wish is that his estranged son, Mark, take over the game and finally win one. So Wahlberg has to put this ramshackle, convict, gambling-addict family back together again and beat the richies. The whole spirit of it is that it’s just a giant, fun ensemble comedy. We want to populate it with people we love. There’s a funny subplot with Rob Riggle where he’s a gay cousin that Wahlberg’s family sort of turned their backs on but he played football at Fresno State and they need him. We’re going to try to get Jeremy Renner to play an ex-con. The idea is to bring in, like, 15 people that we love in and just do a big, funny holiday movie.”

Well jeez, Mr. McKay, do we even have to see the movie now? Better be some good cameos, that’s all I’m saying. (Entertainment Weekly)