New Version of 'Anchorman 2' to Hit Theaters

It sounds like the kind of absurd joke that Will Ferrell makes when he wants to keep an interviewer off balance, but from all reports, the news of an extended version of "Anchorman 2" seems to be true. The new cut of the movie has a new rating and a much longer run time, and it will hit theaters for one week beginning on Feb. 28.

"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," director Adam McKay said in a statement this week.

The shock turned into opportunity when Paramount told McKay that they'd release the recut version in theaters for a limited run. The original version's run time was already long at just one minute short of two hours, and this new version makes room for those 800 new jokes by adding more than 20 minutes to the film. The new material is obviously raunchier than the jokes in the original version, since the extended cut has been given an R rating.

McKay admits that the hundreds of new gags might be more "Anchorman" than the casual viewer can take.

"If you're a hardcore Anchorman fan go see this," he says. "If you're not, stay very far away."