Will Ferrell to Star in Low-Budget Comedy EVERYTHING MUST GO

There are countless producers out there who would love to have Will Ferrell and his patented brand of screaming comedy star in their film.  But he’s just too popular and most producers can’t pay his regular salary.  That’s a real shame when you consider that Ferrell was able to lead “Land of the Lost” to $50 million at the box office.  Granted, the film cost $100 million to make, but that’s neither here nor there.

But director Dan Rush must have won a contest or something because Will Ferrell is going to star Rush’s $10 million comedy, “Everything Must Go”.  Hit the jump for details.

Rush is a commercial director but “Everything Must Go” is his feature directorial debut.  He also wrote the script and it’s based on a Raymond Carver short story.  According to Variety, “Ferrell will play a guy who loses his job and gets locked out of the house by his wife. She deposits his belongings on the front lawn, and he spends the next four days trying to sell his possessions.”  Yep, that sounds like a Will Ferrell comedy alright; lots of room for screaming jokes there.

“Everything Must Go” was featured on the Black List (a yearly list of the best unproduced screenplays in Hollywood) and it got him meetings with many leading men including Ferrell.  Ferrell was impressed with the project and signed on.  It will be funded by private equity and presales which shouldn’t be too tough since Ferrell, despite the misfire of “Land of the Lost” is a highly bankable star.  However, I can’t help but snicker when I read what producer Marty Bowen had to say about his leading man:

“Will is one of the best at making an audience sympathize with a character’s ordeal, and the blending and comedy in this script will show a side of him that we haven’t really seen before.”

No, “Stranger Than Fiction” was a side of him we hadn’t really seen before.  This sounds exactly like the side of him we’ve seen many times before.  But I honestly hope it will be a comedic change up for Ferrell because his comedy has become too predictable and comedians who fail to evolve fail to stay relevant.  I’m rooting for Ferrell if for no other reason that I still laugh myself silly just thinking of his cameo in “The Goods”.