Will Ferrell To Team Up With Romantic Comedy Legend
Will Ferrell is more known for comedy than for romance, but he is teaming up with romantic comedy royalty for an upcoming film.
Will Ferrell is set to star in an upcoming film with one of a legend of romantic comedy, Reese Witherspoon. The pair is attached to a so-far untitled film to be written and directed by Nicholas Stoller. Per Deadline, the film project is currently up for auction and is already hotly sought after; that should be no surprise, considering Will Ferrell has been a dependable comedy draw for going on three decades now and Reese Witherspoon is the queen of romantic comedies. The only detail we have so far on the project is that it is reportedly centered around a wedding, which puts it firmly in the camp of the 90% of romantic comedies that also are.
This will be the first film project to partner Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon, both of whom have been phenomenally successful since the 1990s. Ferrell first broke out as a member of Saturday Night Live, swiftly becoming a fan favorite during his tenure from 1995 to 2002. While he is best known for anarchic, high-volume comedies like Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Old School, he actually has some experience as a romantic leading man. 2003’s Christmas favorite Elf cast him as a grown man trying to spread holiday spirit after a life spent at the North Pole, but it also posited him as a sweet romantic interest to Zooey Deschanel. 2006’s Stranger Than Fiction was a similarly high-concept movie involving Will Ferrell as a man who becomes aware that he is somehow the main character of a novel ending in his death and also paired him with Maggie Gyllenhaal.
While Will Ferrell has mostly appeared as a potential love interest at the behest of comedy, Reese Witherspoon is well-known for her work in romance films. Legally Blonde (and its sequel, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde) used the framework of a romantic comedy to comment on itself, while Walk the Line and Water for Elephants both starred her as the romantic lead of a historical drama. She is also known for starring in Sweet Home Alabama, a romantic comedy co-starring Josh Lucas, that was unusually straightforward in its use of genre tropes like a high-powered businesswoman being reluctantly wooed by her hometown former flame with a heart of gold.
For his part, Nicholas Stoller has a wealth of experience to direct Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon in a romantic comedy. He is best known as the director of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which broke out star/writer Jason Segal as a leading romantic man. They teamed back up for The Five-Year Engagement (which added Emily Blunt to the mix) and he directed and co-write the LGBTQ+-themed romantic comedy Bros with star Billy Eichner. On the other, more goofy Will Ferrell comedy-oriented side of things, Stoller also directed the comedy Neighbors (and its sequel Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising) as well as the kinda, sorta Forgetting Sarah Marshall spin-off Get Him to the Greek. This upcoming movie is putting a lot of talent together behind the scenes, so we are already excited. We will update with more details as they come.
