Will Ferrell
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Will Ferrell picks a fight with Norway in GM's new Super Bowl commercial
So he’s going to do something about it and is taking Kenan Thompson and Awkwafina along for the ride in GM’s new 90-second “Big Game” ad.
Will Ferrell will bring eSports to the silver screen
According to Variety, Will Ferrell has reportedly signed on to star in an upcoming film about eSports. The as-of-yet untitled movie will feature Ferrell as a member of a pro gaming team with the twist being he's super old for an industry where most people retire in their mid-20s. The film will also include appearances by the Evil Geniuses and Fnatic, two actual professional teams.
Will Ferrell aids cancer charity via Twitch gameplay duel
Like so many ichthyoids before him, comedian Will Ferrell will soon be playing video games over Twitch to entertain the online masses. Unlike those greedy fish, however, Ferrell's efforts are altruistic. "It's no secret the best gamers in the world have wanted a piece of me for years," Ferrell stated in his official announcement. "Guys like CaptainSparklez are gunning for me. I think he might be an actual wizard and he's looking for blood. I told them I'd give them the honor of competing against me with one small condition: we raise a whole bunch of money for a great cause like helping kids with cancer." In lieu of an ongoing stream, Ferrell has started an Indiegogo campaign that seeks to raise $375,000. According to the crowdfunding site, assuming the goal is reached by October 26, one lucky donor will be selected to fly out to the Twitch offices in San Francisco where they'll go head to head against Ferrell in an as yet undetermined game. As you'd expect, this event will be broadcast live over the Internet. For full details and all the information you need to enter this charity sweepstakes, visit Indiegogo. If you'd rather pick up the details from a bearded Will Ferrell surrounded by pizza boxes and stereotypical Chinese takeout containers, click through the break. [Image: WillFerrellHatesCancer.org]
Will Ferrell's parody iPod "Switch" ad is glorious
Will Ferrell's rise to power began in the 1995 as part of the cast of SNL, but he didn't really explode until the 2003 film Old School. Thankfully before his star rose too highly in the sky, he was commissioned to film this hysterical iPod ad for the 2002 Macworld Expo keynote. The video is a parody of Apple's own Switch ad campaign, which highlighted real people who had switched to Macs from PCs. In it we meet Will, a part time actor who sells iPods at baseball games and out of the trunk of his car. When you get to the end of the video you'll understand why this one never made it TV. Ferrell's video was shown only once, at the start of the 2002 Macworld New York presentation, but now lives on forever on the internet. This wouldn't be the last time that Ferrell teamed up with Apple's Switch campaign. He also shot two Christmas themed videos for them, which you can find here. Enjoy.
We gave Anchorman 2: Scotchy Scotch Toss a month to see if a movie tie-in game could grow on you.
Movie tie-ins are highly profitable, but notoriously terrible. Gamers want a chance to play with their favorite characters, but developers often rush a product to meet a film or TV show's release date. Despite being burned time and time again, consumers keep buying these games. Given the history of movie tie-in games, with the exception of Aladdin for the Sega Genesis, I approached Anchorman 2: Scotchy Scotch Toss with a notable sense of dread. But there was one other factor I worried might bias me as a reviewer. The promotional onslaught surrounding the release of Anchorman 2 had created such a storm of annoying white noise that giving the game a fair shake seemed unlikely at the time. So I set out to play Anchorman 2: Scotchy Scotch Toss for a month. In that time, I'd take note of any improvements that were made via updates and see if this silly movie tie-in could grow on me. Scotchy Scotch Toss is a simple reworking of the popular game Paper Toss, only with a extra sassy dose of Will Ferrell. Players attempt to toss ice cubes into Ron Burgundy's ever-present scotch glass. As you play, Burgundy will mock and cheer for you depending on how cold you keep his liquid joy. As you score points, you earn coins that allow you to buy new things to throw, like fire ice that sets the room aflame or hand grenades. Thankfully, you are not required to pay any extra money to buy power ups. It's easy enough to just raise money through gameplay. These power ups don't really effect the game play, but they provide a nice visual accompaniment to the drunken berating of Burgundy. The physics engine is as exaggerated as the movies, meaning even when tossing ice in a Winnebago, the winds create a learning curve. Of course, you won't have to worry about your friends comparing their scores to yours as there is no social component to the game. Even after updates that brought power ups to the game, Scotchy Scotch Toss doesn't have high scores or online leaderboards that track your progress. When you go to the ice bucket menu to select what kind of object you'll throw, the game will show you your all-time best streak and how much ice you've sunk in total, but there is no high score. You build a score during the game, and it's frustrating to not be able to keep track of it. The steady stream of humor mixed with quick game play in Scotchy Scotch Toss makes for a fun diversion. Some levels have secondary targets for you hit and there are hundreds of lines of dialog for your listening pleasure. You even get a soundboard of all the quips for your listening pleasure. In the month since its launch, Anchorman 2: Scotchy Scotch Toss has been updated into a perfectly serviceable diversion. Unlike many quick cash-in apps, the game has been continuously improved since launch, even though the movie supporting has been out for more than a month. They keep making subtle improvements to gameplay and they're not soaking players for in-app purchases. How much you'll actually enjoy Anchorman 2 in the long run will depend on your fandom for Ferrell's series. But after a month of playing the title, it has grown on me. The one liners are sharp, setting a jazz club on fire with ice cubes is a blast and when you're stuck waiting in line for someone to figure out their sub, Anchorman provides a nice distraction. If you're looking for a new, inexpensive time killer, Scotchy Scotch Toss is there to serve up two fingers' worth of diversion. My mind isn't changed on movie tie-ins, but I'm a fan of this serving of Scotch.
Will Ferrell Apple Switch ads are a holiday-themed blast from the past
Remember these fun Christmas ads from Apple that featured Will Ferrell as S. Claus? It's hard to believe they are 10 years old (part of Apple's short-lived Switch campaign, which also launched early Internet celebrity Ellen Feiss). Grab a cup of peppermint-flavored coffee and take a walk down memory lane this Christmas Eve.
Will Ferrell's Funny or Die gets into gaming
Unless you've been living under an e-rock for the past year, you've certainly been to FunnyOrDie.com, if only to see a baby yell at site co-founder Will Ferrell. Now, Funny or Die CEO Dick Glover says the company will be expanding into a games site over the next six weeks that will carry the "_____ or Die" branding.Exactly what content they'll be putting out though, that's another question entirely. "The video game site will not be a game-playing site," Glover said. "If we became a game-playing site, that actually limits who we could partner with, who we could align with, and advertisers we could get." So game reviews? Game news? You got us. Well let you know when we hear something.
First 500K PS3s get Blu-ray Talladega Nights
The PlayStation 3's system font isn't the only thing it's borrowing from Spider-Man. Just like the first one million PSPs came bundled with Sony Pictures' Spider-Man 2, the first half million PlayStation 3 systems will come with Will Ferrell's NASCAR opus, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby in the much-vaunted Blu-ray format. While Will Ferrell's pocked visage isn't the first thing we'd like to experience in stunning 1080p (we're thinking giant apes on skyscrapers is a little more befitting) we are impressed that the Sony Pictures title will be bundled a month before it reaches the unwashed masses at retail on December 12th. Gotta love that corporate synergy!With just 400K launch units in North America -- all bound to sell out mere seconds after their pristine boxes enter the grime of the retail environment -- you can consider this a freebie for the early adopters camping out for their console. And hopefully they have either a PS2 component cable or an HDMI cable to watch it with 'cause -- just like the Japanese console -- "video output in HD requires cables and an HD-compatible display, both sold separately."
