After years in development, the comedy Daddy's Home is finally getting made - and it's coming to life with a pretty fantastic pair of lead actors. After first teaming up on the hilarious cop comedy The Other Guys back in 2010, Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg are set to reunite, and they're playing characters that should fit into their personal comedic wheelhouses quite well.
While we first heard rumors of a Ferrell-Wahlberg team up on Daddy's Home all the way back in June, only now have Paramount Pictures, Gary Sanchez Productions, and Red Granite Pictures made it official. In the movie, Will Ferrell will be playing a mind-mannered radio executive who has gotten married to a woman with two children from a previous relationship, and wants nothing more than to be the best step-dad he can be. Unfortunately, he is given an incredible obstacle to overcome when the kids' biological father (Mark Wahlberg) - a deadbeat asshole - comes back into the picture. The two men go to war trying to earn the affection of the children, and because this is a comedy, we can probably imagine that it will be going to some pretty extreme levels.
While it was Adam McKay who first united Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg for The Other Guys, he is merely serving as a producer on the film. Instead it will be director Sean Anders helming the film. While perhaps better known for his work as a writer in Hollywood, having scripted movies like We're The Millers, Hot Tub Time Machine and Mr. Popper's Penguins, he has been getting more work as a director and later this month we will see his third directorial effort - Horrible Bosses 2 - hit theaters. Previously, he directed Adam Sandler in his first R-rated comedy, That's My Boy, and he made his debut with the 2008 movie Sex Drive. Anders will be working with a screenplay written by Etan Cohen, whose credits include Tropic Thunder and Men In Black III.
Daddy's Home is one of those projects that has been cooking in the studio system for a very long time, and it's good to see it finally break out of development hell. Will Ferrell has been attached for years now, but both his co-star and his role have changed in that time. At one point it looked like it was going to be Ed Helms starring as the mild-mannered radio executive, and Ferrell featured as the deadbeat dad. After Helms dropped out, Ferrell switched roles and it looked like Vince Vaughn was going to play the film's antagonist. Now the game of Hollywood musical chairs has ended, and what we're getting is a reunion of two actors who have proven that they can work extremely well together. If you haven't seen The Other Guys or it's been a few years since you have, you may want to give it another look, as it's one of Adam McKay's better films and features some very funny performances from Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg.
The press release announcing the project has revealed that Daddy's Home will be going into production before the end of the year, so we can probably expect to see it in theaters some time in 2015.
