Adam McKay opens up about his handling of his creative split with former producing partner Will Ferrell. After meeting during their respective runs on SNL, McKay and Ferrell became a seemingly unstoppable duo. The two founded Gary Sanchez Productions in 2006 and oversaw numerous movies and television shows. While a good number were starring vehicles for Ferrell himself (Step Brothers, The Other Guys, Anchorman 2), Gary Sanchez Productions developed an interesting slate of projects, most of which were comedies. McKay and Ferrell also founded Funny or Die alongside Mark Kvamme and Chris Henchy.

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However, soon after the release of the poorly-received Holmes & Watson, McKay and Ferrell announced they were going their separate ways. Gary Sanchez Productions closed down in 2019; only one more movie would come from it, 2020’s Eurovision Song Contest (though McKay and Ferrell remain producers on shows like Succession and Motherland: Fort Salem). At the time, the two creatives released a statement that indicated the split was amicable, and that they remained friends. However, McKay’s new account of the situation paints a different picture.

Speaking to Vanity Fair for the release of his new movie Don’t Look Up, McKay got candid about what went down between him and Ferrell two years ago. According to him, an upcoming miniseries on the L.A. Lakers actually led to the split. McKay cast Ferrell as team owner Jerry Buss, but the funnyman wasn’t McKay’s top choice. Instead, McKay wanted to cast John C. Reilly, but he balked initially because he didn’t want to hurt Ferrell. In the end, though, he went ahead and cast Reilly anyway – without informing Ferrell ahead of time. Reilly was the one to tell Ferrell, who was furious. McKay then recalled their split as going like this:

“I said, ‘Well, I mean, we’re splitting up the company.’ And he basically was like, ‘Yeah, we are,’ and basically was like, ‘Have a good life.’ And I’m like, ‘Fuck, Ferrell’s never going to talk to me again.’ So it ended not well.”

Since then, the Lakers project has moved forward under McKay’s own Hyperobject Industries banner, and Ferrell as continued to produce his own projects. Looking back on it, McKay regrets how the entire situation went down. “I fucked up on how I handled that. It’s the old thing of keep your side of the street clean. I should have just done everything by the book,” he said. McKay also said he believed the incident would blow over, but that hasn’t happened. Instead, Ferrell “took it as a way deeper hurt than I ever imagined and I tried to reach out to him, and I reminded him of some slights that were thrown my way that were never apologized for.” McKay has tried to reach out to Ferrell, but nothing has come of it.

Only just last month, Ferrell offered his own take on his split with McKay, though it gave a very different perspective on the situation. Ferrell said he and McKay went their separate ways because McKay was interested in expanding their output in a major way, thus creating what Ferrell described as a “sphere of influence.” Based on McKay’s side of things, it’s clear there were some deep hurts behind the dissolution of Gary Sanchez Productions, and it remains to be seen if the former partners can ever move beyond it. McKay is remorseful, but Ferrell doesn’t have to forgive him. Only time will tell if he does.

Source: Vanity Fair

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Rachel Labonte
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Rachel LaBonte is a news, feature, and movie review writer for Screen Rant with a deep passion for film and television. A graduate of Emerson College, she majored in Media Arts Production while specializing in screenwriting. She’s been a writer ever since high school when she realized she was rather good at it and joined as many entertainment news clubs as she could while in school. Most notably, she wrote for Emerson’s website Emertainment Monthly, and one of her film reviews won an Evvy (Emerson’s student awards) for Best Review. Her deep love of movies led to her working at a movie theater for five years, which she loved despite the angry customers. An avid reader who constantly buys books before reading the ones she already owns, Rachel is a huge fan of superheroes (especially of the Marvel variety) and wizards and will likely never be able to catch up on all the movies/TV shows she longs to watch.

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