Interview: Will Ferrell On Land of the Lost By Jeff Otto on June 02, 2009 We’ve seen Will Ferrell as a cheerleader, a ‘70s newscaster, a nazi, a race car driver, a figure skater and a basketball player. Naturally, what could the comedy star possibly do next besides battle dinosaurs and Sleestacks? In the new remake of the classically kitsch ‘70s TV series from Sid and Marty Krofft, Will Ferrell steps into the shoes of washed up paleontologist Dr. Rick Marshall. After being humiliated by Matt Lauer on The Today Show, Marshall winds up teaching grade school until he’s approached by Holly Cantrell (Anna Friel), a lovely Brit who just happens to be the last one to believe in Marshall’s out-there theories. She talks Marshall into another expedition and the two suddenly find themselves sucked into space-time vortex leading to a primitive land where dinosaurs, cave men and, of course, Sleestaks, roam the planet. Also joining on the adventure is a redneck the duo just met named Will (Danny McBride). A surprisingly svelte Will Ferrell joined press in Los Angeles recently to discuss his venture into the world of Sid and Marty Krofft, the challenges of remaking the cult classic and his possible plans to step into the shoes of Sherlock Holmes and return to the oblivious world of Ron Burgundy. How much fun was it to reinvent the Land of the Lost theme song for the movie? Ferrell: That was a pretty cool moment for me, having been such a fan of the show as a kid. I thought that was a really smart kind of way to pay homage to the show. I love that scene. Did you ever consider making the effects cheesier in a sort of homage to the show? Ferrell: We knew the Sleestaks would be slow. We would maintain that. For the most part, the decision was made early on for the effects to be updated and be a cool thing as opposed to a kitschy thing. Why was the decision made to change the leads from kids to Danny McBride and Anna Friel? Ferrell: We just thought that would give up a better platform for the comedy. Instead of having my character kind of saddled with these two kids, it just seemed like there would be more opportunity with the character Danny brought to life and to have the potential of a love interest and that sort of thing. How did Brad Silberling get involved? Ferrell: I’ve known Brad for a long time and I did this movie, The Suburbans, with Amy Brenneman, his wife, a long time ago. It was really fun to get to know him on a professional level. I’m a fan of his work. When we were meeting with potential directors, he immediately set himself apart. He had so much knowledge about how to shoot this film. We were so impressed by how he had the whole thing laid out. We were looking at more comedy guys at first who didn’t necessarily have a handle on a movie of this scope, but in the end I think we made the right decision. Brad was okay with anything we wanted to throw in comedically and he’s got a better sense of humor than he gets credit for. Was it difficult for you guys to bring the comedy with this much CGI? Ferrell: It was hard at times because you’re obviously running from point A to point B. It’s something that I wasn’t used to. In watching the movie, you see things after the fact, like, ‘Oh, we could have made a joke here,’ so that was a little difficult, but for the most part the humor was pretty well set before that. This humor is pretty edgy. What age would you say this is appropriate for? Ferrell: I don’t know. We obviously didn’t want it to be a Disney film. We wanted the humor to be cool and pushing that PG-13 thing. You know, kids are pretty sophisticated. I’d say this movie is appropriate for six years-old and above. (Laughs) No, probably a sophisticated 11 year-old, 10 year-old, that sort of thing. I’m proud of this movie in a sense that it is a more family movie than I’ve done in a while, but then its also got some more sophisticated jokes than you’d find in a movie in a similar vein. Chaca is a bit of a pervert. Was that in the script or did it develop on set? Ferrell: No, that was always in the script. He, kind of, quickly figured out, ‘Oh, is this the way you communicate with women, by grabbing their breast?’ Yeah, he’s kind of sly and a bit touchy-feely. We just thought that was a funny place for Chaca to go. Jorma [Taccone] did such a great job. When I first meet him and he steals my wallet, [Jorma] came up with a lot of that, just touching me everywhere he could. It was really funny to play off of that, like, ‘Oh, he’s just saying hello.’ Some of that was added. What was the bottom line number you had for direct references to the series or things that were too inside? Ferrell: The only other references we had were the original Will and Holly meeting us at the end of the movie. There’s a whole part where we return back to the La Brea tarpits, but that ended up getting cut for time. That was going to be a little homage to them. Did you film it? Ferrell: Yes. Will it be on the DVD? Ferrell: Yeah, probably for sure. Was it always going to be Matt Lauer that humiliates you? Ferrell: I think the original draft, I was on like a Charlie Rose with a panel of Al Gore, Stephen Hawking and myself and Hawking starts to go after me and discredit me. Then we get in this fight where I actually try to lunge at Stephen Hawking, which was a really funny great idea on paper and then you start to make the phone calls and people are like, ‘No, I don’t want to do that. We’re not available.’ (Laughs) The Today Show was up for that and Matt was totally game. It worked beautifully, so much so that going back on the show was actually a reshoot. [Lauer] got such a kick out of it when we ran the spot on the Super Bowl. For the most part, it was scripted, but we were so impressed because he was so at ease. He would just throw little things in. Will you show up again in the next season of Eastbound at Down? Ferrell: I would love to, but it’s up to the guys. I think the direction they’re talking about going with the second season, which I don’t want to spoil, is something that wouldn’t lend itself to my character re-appearing. Could you do someone else with a different wig? Ferrell: I could. I would be up for that too, especially where they’re planning on going with the show. But yeah, they’ll probably start, next January or February, they’ll start filming and then hopefully put it out in the Spring. You shot Eastbound after Land of the Lost. Did having worked with Danny before help your performance together? Ferrell: It definitely made it so much more comfortable, for sure. I think we had already had the talks with them as producers about Eastbound before Danny got cast in Land of the Lost, but yeah, obviously having spent three, four months together made it great to show up in North Carolina and play around. They are just a bunch of funny, smart guys. Is there a person you based Ashley Schaeffer on? Ferrell: They wanted him to look like Rick Flair, the Wrestler, so I kind of used that guy as the basis. You’re going to be on Man Vs. Wild. How was that? Ferrell: It was crazy. It was fun, but it was one of those things that I knew I would be out there going, ‘Why did I do this?’ mixed with, at the same time, I couldn’t resist. We were 40 miles North of the Arctic Circle in Northern Sweden in the middle of nowhere making snow shoes out of branches and eating reindeer eyeballs and things like that. It was pretty intense. It was 48 hours. They scaled it back for me. He’s usually out there an entire week, but yeah, they made it really safe for me. I think I had a few more of the creature comforts that I don’t think he gets like warm clothes, a base camp and things like that. Who wins, man or wild? Ferrell: Wild kicks man’s ass and then man ends up courageous at the end. Are you working on a Sherlock Holmes project? Ferrell: Yeah, we’re trying to develop this. We’ve got a script written by Etan Cohen. I just met with Sacha [Baron Cohen] a few weeks ago. It’s just a question of, you know, the Robert Downey Jr. one they just shot will come out at Christmas and that will probably be a hit franchise... So whether that is something you want to go up against or do we just inform the audience to do a comedy version or would it feel like we’re just trying to copy them, even though we wrote our script before they did, I think. But yeah, we’re thinking about it. Are you still meeting next week about Anchorman 2? Ferrell: Well, I thought we were and now I’m hearing it’s going to be too hard to get everyone together. Hopefully Adam [McKay]’s going to be able to kind of talk to all of the guys individually and see if there’s a time and a place to do this. Comedy sequels have had a rocky history. Why do you guys think that you can break that curse and do a movie that lives up to the first one? Ferrell: Oh, we don’t. We just think it would be really fun to do. It could be terrible, but I mean, if they’re going to pay us to do it, why not? (Laughs) Is it something you’re eager to do? Ferrell: We weren’t necessarily and then the legacy of that movie kept building and we got excited. And then, last year, we did this Funny or Die comedy tour where, every college we went to, I would interview the head football coach or the president of the school Ron Burgundy. And Adam and I got such a kick out of it, it was so much fun, we thought, ‘God, it would be so much fun, maybe we should revisit this.’ Then Carrell said [he was] up for it. I agree, sequels to comedies that have really found a foothold in the consciousness are hard to [recapture], but I think we would use that as a challenge to make it the craziest comedy sequel you’ve ever seen. Would you consider doing another Land of the Lost? Ferrell: I would love to. I loved working with Brad and this cast. It was nice to actually work with a small cast after doing ensembles for so long. So yeah, giving the opportunity, it would be fun. LAND OF THE LOST Opens June 5th 2009. Source: Latino Review Tags: Land of the Lost, Text Interview