'Anchorman 2' Will Storm Theaters With a New R-Rated Edit

You had to wait nine years for a second "Anchorman" with Will Ferrell and his news team. But in just a few days there will be another (practically) new movie in theaters. It's the re-edited "Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues: Super-Sized R-Rated Version," and it's so massive it need two colons in the title.

Don't act like you're not impressed.

While they were filming the movie, director Adam McKay encouraged his cast to improvise to such an extent that they had multiple versions of each scene to choose from in the editing room. According to HitFix, McKay and his editor were able to swap in different cuts of the same scene throughout the test-screening process. Eventually, they pared it down to a film that was under two hours and was able to earn a PG-13 rating from the MPAA. But McKay also kept another edit of the film that was longer and raunchier.

This isn't the first time McKay has put together an alternate version of an "Anchorman" movie. After the success of the first film in 2004, McKay used a deleted plot thread about a bank-robbing extremist group to piece together a "lost movie" called "Wake Up, Ron Burgundy," which was released on DVD in a box set with the original. But the new cut of "Anchorman 2" — which boasts 763 all-new jokes — is actually getting released into theaters for a one-week limited run. McKay told Empire magazine, "I know that I personally, if I loved a movie and someone told me that, like if Airplane! had been released with all-new jokes, I'd be like, 'You've got to be f---ing kidding me!' I'd see it in a second."

The new version includes some scenes that were in the trailer for the first version but not in the final cut, like when Ron meets an openly gay person for the first time. Plus, there is an extensive, elaborate musical sequence that McKay told Entertainment Weekly, "I really loved, and it just was off-story and long." McKay concludes that the new edition is really for the most rabid of Burgundy aficionados: "If you're a hardcore Anchorman fan go see this. If you're not, stay very far away."

"Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues: Super-Sized R-Rated Version" will be in theaters for just one week starting Friday. Both versions will be available on Blu-ray and DVD on Apr. 1.