Adam McKay talks Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg football comedy

Earlier we reported that Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg were set to reunite on screen in a film tentatively called Turkey Bowl for Warner Bros. Alec Baldwin is attached to co-star in the film, which is being scripted by 30 Rock executive producer Robert Carlock and Friends veteran Scott Silveri. The project is being developed by Adam McKay with Ferrell through their production company, Gary Sanchez Productions. Entertainment Weekly sat down with McKay to discuss the project.

McKay had this to say about the creation of the concept:

"The idea was originally conceived for Mark Wahlberg and Alec Baldwin. Owen Burke, who’s a producer at Gary Sanchez, and I were talking about how crazily funny Wahlberg and Baldwin were in The Departed — how, even though it’s not a comedy, we could just watch them all day long. Burke dropped this idea, and I was like, “Oh my God, that’s a movie!” Then Will heard it and he wanted in. It’s an idea that comics love."

He went on to discuss the comedy's basic plot:

"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. [Laughs] 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."

He went on to talk about the possible title change:

"There’s an indie film that just sold a week or two ago called Turkey Bowl. We’ve had this thing in the works for seven months and we saw that and we’re like, “F—, they’ve got our title!” We’re tentatively calling it Three Mississippi, as a working title."

McKay then talked about when the film is expected to begin shooting and who would be helming the project:

"I don’t think so. I mean, I always like to reserve that right, since it’s our company. I have this other project [the comic-book adaptation The Boys], but you never know. If we could shoot this thing next spring, with a tight post-production, we could roll it out for that following Thanksgiving. That would be the optimistic, everything-goes-well schedule, which we think we have a chance to hit, given what a fun idea this is."

I enjoyed Wahlberg and Ferrell's chemistry on screen in The Other Guys. This sounds like a much cooler concept to me so I am more excited. There really has yet to be a film that celebrates Thanksgiving and football. What are your thoughts?

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