New on DVD and Blu-ray: 'Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues', '47 Ronin', 'The Bag Man'

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues - Rob Burgundy returns once more. Except this time around, he's thrust into a new decade of news making. The 80s are very different from the 70s, and Burgundy and friends find themselves working for the first every 24-hour news station, competing against the top newscasters.  The same lovable news gang is back, along with some new and fun additions. The films stars Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, Christina Applegate, Steve, Carell, Meagan Good, James Marsden, and David Koechner. 

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The Pirate Fairy - Tinker Bell and her friends go on the adventure of a lifetime when a dust-keeper fairy named Zarina steals the important blue pixie dust. Along the way their powers get switched and they have to learn to deal with that as they hunt down Zarina to return the pixie dust to its rightful place. The film stars the voice talents of Tom Hiddleston, Christina Hendricks, Mae Whitman. 


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47 Ronin - A group of samurais, in order to avenge the death and dishonor of their master, head out in search of the powerful shogun who killed him. The film stars Keanu Reeves, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ko Shibasaki, Tadanobu Asano, and Min Tanaka. 

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Knights of Badassdom - A movie that sounds like it came from the writer's room of Supernatural, Knights of Badassdom follows live-action role players as they mistakenly raise a demon from hell and have to deal with the consequences of their actions. The film stars Ryan Kwanten, Steve Zahn, and Peter Dinklage. 

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At Middleton - Two parents fall in love over the course of a single day while playing hooky from their children's college tour. The film stars Andy Garcia and Vera Farmiga. 

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The Bag Man - A criminal waits in a hotel for his boss after killing several men and making off with a mysterious bag. The film stars John Cusack, Robert De Niro, and Rebecca Da Costa. 

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'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty' is 2013's Biggest Offender of Movie Product Placement

There are so many awards in Hollywood that it's very easy to lose count of them all. Some of the more fun awards, though, don't have a telecast, and aren't attended by the Hollywood A-list. One of these is brandhannel's annual Brandcameo Product Placement Awards. Brandhannel's creative awards have been around since 2004, and have handed out awards to movies with obvious product placements, even going so far as to separate them into very distinct categories. 

The site has been tracking the ad placement in films for over fifteen years, and it's come to their attention that the number of ads in award-winning films has gone down since 2001, with 2013 being the lowest. Which is impressive, considering the assumption that product placement has only gotten worse. Maybe the product placement has just gotten larger in size, just in case you didn't notice it was there (I'm looking at you, Man of Steel!). 

The primary offender of 2013 was The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. The film had product placement interwoven into its plot, such as Papa John's Pizza, Life magazine, and eHarmony. Other movies that had product placement, but didn't get any awards, were Man of Steel (7-11, IHOP, and Sears's large store sign were particularly annoying), Iron Man 3 (Yili milk and Oracle, anyone?), and, though tobacco ad placements are practically non-existent these, Marlboro still makes an appearance in Sylvester Stalone's Escape Plan. 

You can check out the winners of the 2014 Product Placement Awards below! And if you're interested in finding out how brandchannel calculates all of these things and some other fun and interesting tidbits about product placement and movies, head on over to their to find out. 

                                                     

2013 Award for Overall Product Placement 
Budweiser - appeared in Lee Daniels' The Butler, Nebraska, Don Jon, and Star Trek Into Darkness (where a Budweiser factory was used as a stand-in for a spaceship at the end of the film. Interesting fact, right?)

2013 Award for Achievement in Product Placement in a Single Film 
Pain and Gain 

2013 Award for Worst Product Placement
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

2013 Award for Product Placement Achievement in an Oscar-Nominated Film
Philomena and Guinness

2013 Award for Product Placement Achievement in a Foreign Film 
Dhoom 3 and BMW


2013 Award for Best Role in a Supporting Product Placement 
The Internship and Google

2013 Award for Best Off-Screen Supporting Product 
Anchorman 2 and Dodge Durango

2013 Award for Product Placement Impact 
Frozen and Norway

2013 Lifetime Achievement Award for Product Placement 
Under Armour

2013 Award for Product Placement Adaptation 
Warm Bodies and BMW

2013 Award for Visual Effects in Product Placement
Rush

The Forrest Gump Award for Achievement in Reverse Product Placement 
Anchorman 2 and The Rigid Ghost condoms

2013 Coca-Cola Kid Award for Product Placement Title 

午夜微博 (Wǔyè wēibó) "Midnight Weibo"

2013 Wayne's World Award for Product Placement Product Placement 

Anchorman 2 and Jockey

2013 Award for Unwanted Product Placement 

Anchorman 2 and BP

2013 Cleo McDowell "My Buns Have No Seeds" Award 

Movie 43 and ViewThisTube and Zwoogle

2013 Award for Product Placement Production 

Smurfs 2

2013 Award for Original Short 

Sriracha! The Movie

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Trailer and Clip for R-Rated, Super-Sized 'Anchorman 2', Hitting Theaters Next Week

If you thought Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues was the last you were going to hear from Ron Burgundy, then think again. Adam McKay and Will Ferrell took the film through many different forms along the way, with talk of there being a massive musical number that unfortunately never made it into the version we saw in theaters. They shoot a ton of material that usually ends up on the DVD or Blu-Ray, just like the short film 'Wake Up, Ron Burgundy' was included as an extra on the original Anchorman home release. Well, once again there are so many left over jokes that they've created an entirely new version of Anchorman 2, and it's heading to theaters next week.

A trailer and clip for the Super-Sized R-Rated cut of Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues is here, before it makes a one-week theatrical run beginning on February 28th.  With supposedly 763 new jokes, that full musical number we never saw, and an extra 20 minute run time, it's basically an entirely new film that McKay says is only for the most hardcore of Ron Burgundy fans...

“When my editor told me we had a whole different version of the movie that was more than two hours long with nearly 800 new jokes, I was shocked. But when Paramount said they were actually going to put it in theaters, I did an 1950's spit take. If you're a hardcore Anchorman fan go see this. If you're not, stay very far away." 

 This version of the film will also be available when Anchorman 2 hits store shelves in April, but if you're truly a die-hard follower of the Channel 4 News Team how could you possibly stay away?

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'Offering Ron the Job' New Clip from Anchorman 2!

By the beard of a jilted unicorn! Am I really feeling Ron Burgundy overload? Surely this can't be possible, I've waited something like ten years for this and now, just weeks away from release, I'm feeling the itch to knock Ron's mustache sideways. I mean, DAMN, dude is everywhere! Reading sports on a Michigan local news station then calling Monday Night Football, hell...I'm sure he's even done local commercials for some mom and pop appliance repair shop by now!

Whooossaaaa. Ok, I'm good. It's just that this is really an ensemble comedy and Ron is that guy from High School that was awesome in small doses but 45 minutes into a road trip your ready to throw him out of the window. I would love to see Brick doing the weather for Good Morning America, or Brian Fantana guest hosting The Bachelor, how about Champ hosting Sportscenter one morning?

Our latest entry in the Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues marketing blitz shows us the sit down Ron has where he accepts the job at GNN, the Global News Network. It's pretty much textbook Ron with one downside...some of his trademarks are showing signs of wear, "By the hymen of Olivia Newton John"......Really, that's what your bringing to the highlight table?

Needless to say, I'll be first in line and first to wear out every quotable line from the movie so that shows where my dignity sits. 

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New Posters for 'Anchorman 2', 'About Last Night', 'Divergent', and 'Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit'

An epic-sized sequel like Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues deserves a marketing push that's kind of a big deal. Four new larger-than-life character posters have been released featuring everybody's favorite Channel 4 News Team: Ron Burgundy, Brian Fantana, Champ Kind, and Brick Tamland. What? No Harrison Ford as Mack Harken? Gotta get on that, Paramount! Anchorman 2 goes live on December 20th.

I don't know if calling these new one-sheets for About Last Night characters is totally accurate, but they sure are clever. Um, and a little plucky. Starring Kevin Hart, Regina Hall, Michael Ealy, and Joy Bryant, the Steve Pink-directed comedy is a remake of the 1986 rom-com about two couples trying to turn their flings into mature relationships and not having a lot of luck. If that "wingman" image of Hart and Ealy doesn't make you want to see this then nothing will. About Last Night opens next Valentine's Day.

It's nothing but character posters today as Summit Entertainment has released a new one for Divergent. We've seen two similar ones featuring stars Shailene Woodley and Theo James, and now it's Maggie Q's turn. She plays Tori, a member of the Dauntless faction and the one who discovers Tris (Woodley) is a powerful Divergent and doesn't fit into any faction. Directed by Neil Burger, Divergent arrives next year on March 21st.

Left twisting in the wind for a few weeks while Paramount decided what to do with Martin Scorsese's delayed The Wolf of Wall Street, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit was finally bumped from next month to January 17th 2014. Should we be worried about the studio's willingness to drop the Tom Clancy property into the cinematic waste bin? Or will its obvious star power and franchise cred boost it to greater heights with less competition? Those are the questions, but in the meantime a new poster has been issued. Starring Chris Pine, Keira Knightley, Kevin Costner, and Kenneth Branagh (who also directs), the film has Jack Ryan attempting to stop an act of economic terrorism perpetrated by the Russians. Oh, that Putin. Such a cut up.

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Adam McKay says 'Anchorman 2' will have musical numbers; plus more plot details revealed

By the time Anchorman 2 finally hits theaters it will have been more than a decade since the original cult favorite debuted. How old do you feel right now? To say the sequel has had a bumpy road would be an understatement, but Adam McKay and Will Ferrell are getting everything together in time for what's expected to be a March start date.

You might recall that one of the earliest rumors about Anchorman 2 was that it would be a musical, and while doing press for the indie comedy Fully Loaded, McKay was asked by ThePlaylist about just that...

McKay: “We were going to do ‘Anchorman 2′ as a Broadway musical first, for like six months and then go shoot the movie. That was our initial idea.”

McKay has a long history of throwing musical sequences in his flicks, and it sounds like we can expect to see even more this time...

McKay: “Whole song sequences, absolutely. The music sequences we have done — we did ‘Afternoon Delight’ [in 'Anchorman'], Adam Scott and his family singing ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ [in 'Step Brothers'], we did a whole song for ‘Talladega Nights‘ that got cut out, a big, big musical number — we always do it live on the set. And my thing is, if the actors get freaked out, don’t sweat it, we can always re-record it later. And every time we’ve done it, we end up using the live track from the recording. We’ll probably do it the same way in this. This one might have a little more movement in it, and the only problem with that is the actors get winded.”

McKay then goes on to elaborate on another plot point we'd heard about, that the film would largely revolve around the start of the 24 hour news cycle, and how Ron Burgundy copes with the changing landscape. Will he have his "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" moment?

McKay: “It’s been discussed, there’s a little wisp of [talk]. We’d never do it straight ahead, we gotta fuck with it in some way. Because Ron Burgundy isn’t quite Jimmy Stewart in character, so if he does, he’s not going to do it well. But there’s a little bit of that going on. I mean what is this 24 hours news, and this wall of white noise information, has it really been good for our country? The great thing when you find a point of view like that is that it doesn’t have to be preachy or didactic, it’s also funny. It’s just funny that Americans have to contend with 2000 channels, and 60 different specific news sources, and the confusion that it creates, and the junk that we get to see is hilarious. That’s what we’re always kinda looking for, what’s the point of view that’s got life to it and plays.”

Ok, that all sounds great, but what about the cameos? Can we expect the same level of talent to show up this time? Maybe even for another gigantic brawl? What do you think? OF COURSE!!!

McKay: “We’re talking about for ‘Anchorman 2′ creating a murderer’s row of the best day players ever. Like having every single one line or three line role, just be someone we just love. Someone like Ian Roberts or Rob Huebel or Paula Killen — just making sure every day player is a homerun.”

Anchorman 2 doesn't have a release date yet, but expect that to change the closer we get to the start of production. 

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1st teaser poster for 'Anchorman: The Legend Continues'

Fans of Anchorman finally got their wish when Adam McKay, and Ron Burgundy himself, announced that a sequel to the hit 2004 comedy was on the way. The announcement came kinda out of the blue, as we'd been told for a few years that it wouldn't happen, with the project totally shut down on at least one occasion. Now McKay saying that filming could begin next year, possibly to arrive by next Christmas, the marketing campaign has begun in earnest with a teaser trailer attached to showings of The Dictator, and now this new teaser poster which also revealed the official title, Anchorman: The Legend Continues.

Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, and David Koechner, and Christina Applegate are all expected to return. McKay has repeatedly stated how they're still hammering out the script, so nailing down a plot this early has been a little difficult. We've heard rumors of it being a big musical production; or a story involving a custody battle. The one thing that sounds concrete is when the film will take place, during the advent of the 24hr news cycle in the late 1970s. Expect cameos galore, just like the previous film, and hopefully another huge celebrity brawl.

Well I'm excited. How about you? [LCMG]

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