15 Things You Didn't Know About Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy
10. The Filmmakers Originally Wanted An Almost Entirely Different Cast
Once DreamWorks gave Anchorman the green light, the filmmakers turned their attention to casting, with Will Ferrell always cemented in as playing the lead role of Ron Burgundy.
Surprisingly, early drafts of the film included suggested actors for the remainder of the cast that didn’t include hardly any of the people who eventually got the roles. The original choices for Brick Tamland and Brian Fantana were Chris Parnell and Ben Stiller respectively.
Stiller did go on to have a cameo in the movie during the infamous fight between the rival news teams. Parnell also ended up being cast in the movie as Garth Holliday, an employee at the news station, although Dan Aykroyd was originally pencilled in for that part.
Likewise, Ed Harris was wanted for the part of Ed Harken, but that role eventually went to Fred Willard. It’s hard to picture anyone else as the characters we all know and love today, but the film almost looked very different.