Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
- During the filming of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Will Ferrell improvised one of the most famous lines in the movie.
- Many of the practical effects used in the climax were achieved without any CGI.
- Before Will Ferrell was cast, several major A-list stars turned down the lead role because they felt the script was too risky.
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is a 2004 American comedy directed by Adam McKay. Will Ferrell stars as Ron Burgundy, the supremely confident, magnificently dim-witted anchor of San Diego's top-rated news team in 1974, whose chauvinistic worldview is challenged when Veronica Corningstone, played by Christina Applegate, is hired as the station's first female anchor. The film's comedy was built on the contrast between Ron's pathological self-assurance and his actual incompetence โ his complete inability to function off-script, his reliance on his equally idiotic news team (including Steve Carell's brick-dumb weatherman Brick Tamland), and his genuine bewilderment that a woman could be his professional equal.
Will Ferrell's improvisational approach generated legendary amounts of unused material โ so much was filmed that an entire alternate cut called Wake Up, Ron Burgundy was assembled from deleted scenes. Anchorman earned $90 million worldwide on a $26 million budget and became one of the most quoted comedies of the 2000s.
