Steve Carell Meets Will Ferrell: Cracked Fantasy Casting

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Steve Carell Meets Will Ferrell: Cracked Fantasy Casting

Ever daydream about two of your favorite actors finally being cast in a movie that you most definitely will throw your money at and also maybe your first-born child? Of course, you have. You are a very normal human person. We think about it all the time, so we decided to go ahead and write it up. It's Cracked Fantasy Casting: The Comedians Edition. We're kicking it off with The Dana Carvey Show star and guy who played the Best Worst Boss in TV history, sharing screen time with one of the most successful Saturday Night Live cast members/cowbell enthusiasts.

You'd think that these two Frat Pack members would be an absolute hit starring in the same movie, side by side, as equals. Or maybe the entire fabric of the cinematic realm will implode; who knows? Because while they both had parts in the Anchorman movies, those parts were not equal. 

Carell was a side character who everyone remembers for wanting to bang a lamp and killing a guy with a trident. No, we want to see these two play main characters opposite each other — no cameos or bit roles in our Fantasy Casting, people. The only time Ferrell and Carell have ever really bounced off each other on-screen was in that TV show that no one ever talks about:

So, let's look at these gents' filmographies and determine the best possible and most plausible Fantasy Casting that will make Hollywood throw their money and also their probably adopted children at us. 

First up, we've got Will Ferrell, whose most popular role is a toss-up between the obvious favorite Ron Burgundy in Anchorman or Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights. Notice how these two character names both start with R/B. There's clearly something in it that the people want. We're writing down the totally made-up and completely original name Reggie Buttlicker, just in case.

Ferrell has played a giant elf in ELF (writes down "Rudolph Buttlicker??"), the one-hit-wonder muso/basketball coach Jackie Moon in Semi-Pro, and he's been the antagonist in every animation he's ever done, which is only three — Megamind and both those movies about feet-hating toy bricks— but still, that's three for three. He's also played a guy named Chazz twice, which is a cinematic feat in and of itself.

Ferrell's highest-rated movie over on Rotten Tomatoes is The LEGO Movie with a whopping 96% critics score, followed by ELF at 85% and The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part at 84%. It makes sense that his top movies would probably be kids-oriented since those kinds of movies generally garner favorable reviews unless they're really effin awful. What's interesting is that, when it comes to his adult films, The Other Guys tops critics' scores at 78%, followed by Wedding Crashers at 76%, and the second Anchorman movie at 75%. For real, Megamind is rated higher than the first Anchorman movie, Talladega Nights, and most of Ferrell's earlier stuff that many of his biggest fans would probably want to be buried with when they die.

Of course, that's the critics' opinions, which we know can mean as much as a guy named Chazz giving you a compliment. The audience ratings on RT put Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy up in first place with 86%, followed by Zoolander with 80%, and then Wedding Crashers with 70%.

So what have we learned from this data, apart from the fact that one of the most popular SNL comedians who successfully transitioned to movies gets better RT scores for the films in which we don't see his face much? Considering his kid's films, Ferrell would probably do well playing a villain in a movie that stylizes its title with ALL CAPS. That, or some adult sports movie called A Guy Named Chazz. 

On to Steve Carell, who's had great success both in film and television. What an overachiever. While he's probably best known for his role as the insufferable Michael Scott in The Office, Carell's most popular mainstream film — according to the scores and all of the internet rankings — is The 40-Year-Old Virgin, with critics giving him 85% and audiences 84%. It's the closest the critics and public can get to actually agreeing on a movie, and we bet it's largely because of this:

To think that there was a time people couldn't shut up about that scene. Still, the movie is highly rated. Not his highest, but not bad. Considering his highest rated movies — Little Miss Sunshine (91% for both the critics and audience scores whaa?), The Big Short (89% and 88% respectively), and Foxcatcher (88% but only a 66% audience score) — it does seem like Carell's rating success lies in more serious films ... but fourth on the list is his chest wax movie. 

Also interesting is that his Minion-mania animated franchise, Despicable Me, only comes in at number seven on the ratings after Battle of the Sexes and The Way Way Back. So it's pretty clear that the population at large likes Carell in more serious films that cater to adults, preferably playing a non-douchey guy even though he's incredibly good at it. That, or movies like The 40-Year-Old Virgin.

Our Fantasy Casting:

While Despicable Me might only be Carell's seventh highest-rated movie, it's still solidly rated at 81% and 82% by critics and audiences (people really seem to agree on his movie scores — he should just star as himself in a movie called Overachiever). Taking into account that both Carell and Ferrell have popular animated films where they both play villain-type characters, we're putting them in a Villain vs. Villain movie with a title that's got some all caps in it, and in which they both have their own army of minions, obviously.

Or, since these two actors seem to like doing sports movies and also play super-competitive characters, we want to see them do a Battle of the Coaches-type comedy. Maybe in the highly-competitive and cutthroat sport of Curling. 

As long as Ferrell plays a coach named Chazz Buttlicker. 

You can follow Zanandi on Twitter.

Top Image: Paramount Pictures

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