Anyone with more than a passing interest in Judd Apatow's career will note how there's a curious call-back to one of Apatow's earlier works in this most recent of his productions, with the credits for Step Brothers in the exact same scrawled, stretched-out font as his comedy Freaks and Geeks. Freaks and Geeks, though, featured teens who often spoke and acted like adults; Step Brothers features adults who constantly speak and act like children.

The credit-font's evocation of an earlier Apatow work is an omen for the rest of Step Brothers, in fact, with Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly recycling and amplifying their rivalry from Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (also directed by Step Brothers helmer Adam McKay) but without that film's plot structure, surreal wit or inspired mockery (and celebration) of NASCAR culture; instead, Step Brothers seems constructed -- or, rather, contrived -- solely to create a circumstance where Ferrell and Reilly can act like idiot man-children and riff to their great amusement. That, however, is not the same thing as riffing to the amusement of the audience. ...

It's finally time for Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly to bunk together in Step Brothers, which means it is time for another edition of Moviefone's Unscripted -- questions from the readers and questions off the top of their heads all mixed into one! Above you can check out an exclusive clip, which you won't see in the Moviefone segment, where Ferrell discusses Anchorman 2. After that, head over to Moviefone and spend a few minutes with the funny men. They chide Moviefone for the title of this series, and then they discuss focusing the hate, little baby ham hands, and one heck of an awesome shot-by-shot remake idea they had. When you hear what it is, remember the movie's shower scene and imagine the possible sexiness.

Step Brothers opens this Friday.

Sometimes a movie's concept tells you everything you need to know about it. Other times you hear one and go "well, that's kind of weird -- I wonder what they'll make of this." Surprisingly, Will Ferrell's latest project fits into the latter category. It's a dramedy called Two Face, written by X-Files vet Vince Gilligan, who also had a hand in the Hancock screenplay. The pitch: Ferrell will play a virulent racist who develops a split personality after an accident, and his alter ego turns out to be a bleeding-heart liberal.

I think the success of this concept depends on how frankly they're willing to approach the racism angle. Obviously there are certain things you're not supposed to say even in unflattering portrayals of racist characters, and certain things that Will Ferrell probably doesn't want to say for the sake of his career. (Side note: I find it a bit curious that period movies can get away with patently offensive displays of racism while movies set in the present tend to shy away, as if we're all pretending that we've solved the racism problem. Any counterexamples? Monster's Ball, maybe.) There's a lot of potential for trenchant satire in something like this, and a lot of potential to make something anodyne and boring, too.

No word on what comes first, this or Sherlock Holmes.

Confirming rumors that we first reported on a couple of weeks back, Robert Downey Jr. has been formally lined up to play Sherlock Holmes in Guy Ritchie's film of the same name. Apparently inspired by Lionel Wigram's comic book as much as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novels, Variety says that the film will begin shooting this October for a scheduled 2010 release.

While Downey Jr. has arguably been making his comeback of sorts since 2005 (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, hear hear!), it's naturally his immense success with Iron Man this past May that has opened a door this big. While I have plenty of faith in whatever direction he's about to take this character, I'm still curious about how British gangster maven Ritchie landed the project and in what direction he's about to take the story.

It's curious that we now have a Tropic Thunder star working on one such project, while that film's writer prepares to take on the Apatow-produced version starring Will Ferrell and Sacha Baron Cohen as Holmes and Watson, respectively. But in a world where we get to choose between the prospects of a Victorian-era Tony Stark and a detective prone to streaking in the nude, aren't we all a little spoiled?

Columbia Pictures is prepping a comedy in which Sacha Baron Cohen and Will Ferrell will play iconic characters Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, respectively. Already you know if you're going to see this movie or not, right? Count me in the 'definitely interested' pile, but then I'm one of the only people who thought Semi-Pro was freakin' hilarious, so maybe I'm just a sucker for Will Ferrell. And Sacha Cohen as Sherlock Holmes? That sounds potentially priceless. Like Peter Sellers caliber funny. (Maybe.)

Comedy flick gold-miner Judd Apatow is (of course) on board as a producer, but the director has not been specified just yet. (Nor has the name of the movie, come to think of it.) The screenplay comes from Etan Cohen, he of (still funny) Idiocracy and the upcoming (hilarious-looking) Tropic Thunder. As Variety so capably points out, Mr. Cohen and Mr. Ferrell worked together recently (not to mention humorously and very profitably) in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

More info on this comedy project as it becomes available, but I would like to take this opportunity to recommend a very underrated 1988 comedy called Without a Clue. The gag there was that Dr. Watson (Ben Kingsley) was actually the brains of the operation, whereas Sherlock Holmes (Michael Caine) was nothing more than a drunken buffoon of a stage actor. Funny little flick, but I refuse to buy the DVD because it's Pan & Scan only. Which is disgusting.

Let's all take a moment and give a cheer for the good old days of children's programming, shall we? Back to when kid's shows had more drug references than a Cheech and Chong skit, and Stevie Wonder was jamming on Sesame Street. So I guess it was only a matter of time before Hollywood started to cash in on the nostalgia -- and in an interview with the Brothers Krofft about the upcoming feature film remake of Land of the Lost, IESB scored a tidbit about their next feature film. According to the Kroffts, H.R. Pufnstuf is lined up for a feature film adaptation -- the Kroffts didn't mention any names, but Marty told IESB that, "he was days from finalizing with a particular studio."

H.R. Pufnstuf premiered in 1969, and ran for seventeen episodes until finally going off the air in 1972. The story centered on a young boy named Jimmy who stumbled upon a magical 'Living Island' where everything was alive. Pufnstuf was the mayor of the island and protected Jimmy and his 'magic flute' from the big bad Witchiepoo. If you aren't familiar with the show, take a quick look at a clip and tell me what exactly Sid and Marty Krofft were 'puffin' on to come up with this -- no matter what they might say to the contrary.

Talk of a feature film first appeared back in 2002, when Columbia Pictures and Nickelodeon toyed with the idea of bringing Pufnstuf to a new generation of kids, but the project fell apart soon afterward. Maybe now that CGI is par for the course for any kid's flick, it might make some of those Living Island inhabitants a little easier on the production budget.

I always like it when a big box arrives at my door, because let's face it: I'm a movie blogger -- I don't have many friends. Let alone the kind who would send me cool t-shirts and a singing box. A singing box, mind you, featuring the theme song for Land of the Lost! Yes, this theme song. While the film isn't due out until July 17, 2009, that doesn't mean we can't start celebrating now, right?

The box pictured above arrived earlier today, and when you opened the leaves a sweeet Sleestak t-shirt cried out, "Rock me hard, dude! Rock me all day, every day!" The old school theme song was blaring -- I was dancing -- and for a little while the world was right. Directed by Brad Silberling and starring Will Ferrell, the brand new, bright and shiny big-screen version of Land of the Lost is due in theaters on July 17th, 2009.

Check out the gallery below for more images ...

The Foot Fist Way premiered at Sundance in 2006. I got my hands on a copy about a year ago, and wondered why it never got a big cross-country release. I knew it was a hit among big-time comedy folk (your Stillers, your Apatows, your Oswalts), and I started to figure that maybe they just wanted to keep it to themselves. But with a big push from Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, Foot Fist has found its way into theaters. Shot independently over nineteen days for little money in North Carolina, the film is a character study about a character you'd never want to meet -- Fred Simmons.

Danny McBride plays Simmons, an unbalanced children's Tae Kwon Do instructor who goes completely off the rails when his wife (the very funny Mary Jane Bostic) cheats on him. Fred is obsessed with karate master and low-budget film star Chuck "The Truck" Wallace (Ben Best), and tries to focus his energies on bringing his hero to the school. That's about it for a plot, much of the film consists of quasi-connected short scenes and moments that feel quite a bit like sketches. A genuinely hilarious scene early on involving an elderly woman, for example, is a self-contained jewel (I actually choked on soda watching it), and would be an internet sensation if this film had never existed.

The juxtaposition of a deranged man and young children is a comedy staple going back (at least) to W.C. Fields, but since this is an indie flick, things go darker than you might expect. Simmons is not a likable man, not at all really, and McBride's resistance to give him a big heart makes him feel a lot more authentic than a lot of the "heroes" in major studio comedies today. Sometimes a dick is just a dick.

The first trailer for Step Brothers was pretty sweet, but if you want a healthy dose of unsuitable language with your trailer, you can check out the new red band version above. It contains many of the same scenes, plus a planet of bulls**t in a galaxy of ... well, you have to watch the trailer to find out. My only complaint: I think that this is the perfect example of why that disembodied voice is really overused, and not necessary. The regular trailer used some on-screen scribbling and was all sorts of great, but the voiceover in the red band really takes away from the whole thing.

Nevertheless, this is looking like a kickass movie. I wasn't sure when I first heard about it, but I've been convinced. The comedy follows Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly as two grown men who won't leave home, and become step brothers when their parents marry. After a rough start, they realize that they're a lot alike and become best friends in adult slackerdom. We've included the trailer after the jump since it's R-rated and full of foul language. Definitely NSFW, so watch at your own risk.

The film will hit theaters on July 25.

There's been a lot of buzz as Oliver Stone's W goes Speedy Gonzalez towards its impending October release. I'd say that it's mainly due to the kickass cast -- maybe not for being the perfect representations of today's political heads, but for being a collection of really great actors.

But still, the project makes me think back to other Dubyas in the entertainment ether. Brolin is certainly not the first. This might not be as old as some Stars in Rewind posts, but I couldn't resist adding a little Will Ferrell presidential fare to this sunny Tuesday. You know, sun and "so-called global warmings" go together. This happens to be one of my favorite blips by Ferrell, and I hope you enjoy it!

Really, who cares about a place where penguins can have an orgy? Nature needs to listen to us!