It’s a sort of sequel to 2007’s Knocked Up in the sense that it focuses on the supporting characters Debbie (director Judd Apatow’s real-life wife Leslie Mann) and Pete (Paul Rudd), both turning 40 the same week and juggling a handful of personal and financial problems.

Paul manages a near-bankrupt record label, signing such current acts as Graham Parker, while Debbie runs her own clothing store and tries to discover which of her employees — Jodi (Charlyne Yi) or Desi (Megan Fox) — has stolen $12,000. Added to that are squabbles with the kids Sadie and Charlotte (Maude and Iris Apatow) and Debbie’s absent and Pete’s beggarly fathers (John Lithgow and Albert Brooks).

There isn’t a conventional plot as much as an exploration of these two people, how they deal with things, how they show their love and appreciation for each other. Rudd and Mann have a great rapport, which I can’t do justice to by simply saying that they really feel like they’ve been married and are 40.

Good news for all you Anchorman fans. Will Ferrell made the official announcement on Conan O’Brien’s TBS talk show last night that there will be an Anchorman 2. Dressed in full Ron Burgundy get up, Ferrell did an in-character flute solo followed by an official announcement for “the Americas” that the film is in production.

Adam McKay has agreed to direct. McKay will also write the script with Ferrell.  Other than Ferrell’s Ron Burgundy, Steve Carell and Paul Rudd are signed on to return as their characters from the 2004 original. No word yet on whether any other characters will be returning from the original film. The film will once again be produced under Judd Apatow’s production company.

Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy had been a DreamWorks production but Paramount took over the project.

As recently as last month, Will Ferrell had been working on the script for Step Brothers 2, which lead many to believe that Anchorman 2 was dead in the water. The sequel had been on the shelf for a while now due to the studio not being willing to reach an agreement on making the film.

More on the film as it becomes available and see the clip after the jump.

Stay classy, San Diego…

A few weeks ago, we brought you the very first teaser for the upcoming HBO special, which is essentially The Pee-Wee Herman Show on Broadway, but televised. As we get closer to the March airdate, we’ve got even more to show you.

From an HBO press release:

Opening to critical acclaim at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre on Nov. 11, 2010, “The Pee-wee Herman Show” is 90 minutes of subversive humor and childlike wonder based on both Reubensʼ original stage show, “The Pee-wee Herman Show,” and the Emmy®-winning Saturday morning TV show, “Pee-weeʼs Playhouse,” which became a cultural phenomenon. The New York Times called the new Broadway show “yummier than chocolate,” with New York saying, “Welcome back, Pee-wee! You were sorely missed,” while the New York Post noted, “The audience screams for joy!”

The special is set to air on March 19th at 10pm, and will be the first interaction with the character for most people living outside of the New York area since the film decades ago. It will have to hold us over until Judd Apatow works out a script for “Herman” to return to the silver screen.

There may have been plenty of mixed emotions about Funny People, but before that film, writer/director Judd Apatow struck comedy gold with Seth Rogen and Katherine Heigl in Knocked Up.

The film also starred plenty of Apatow regulars, such as Paul Rudd and Apatow’s wife Leslie Mann. Now, word is coming in that Apatow is planning on returning to the world of Knocked Up through the film’s B-story characters played by both Rudd and Mann. From Variety.

Apatow will write and direct the film, the first he’s helmed since 2009’s “Funny People.” Apatow, Barry Mandel and Clayton Townsend will produce.

In “Knocked Up,” Mann played Katherine Heigl’s older sister, who is married to Rudd’s character. Plot details are vague, and it’s not clear whether Heigl or Seth Rogen would reprise their roles from 2007’s “Knocked Up,” one of Apatow’s biggest successes with $200 million in worldwide box office.

The film is set to hit theaters in 2012, with Universal backing it. Expect to see some interesting viral stylings from both Apatow and Rudd, as they both frequent Funny Or Die.com, a site that Apatow is partnered with.

Yes, children of the early-‘90s, it’s true: Judd Apatow (40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up) is currently developing the next feature-length Pee-wee Herman film. It’s a long time coming, seeing how the last one, Big Top Pee-wee, came out in 1988 (and was the sequel to 1985’s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, which launched Tim Burton’s career).

Apatow, who’s recruited actor/comedian Paul Rust to work on the script with Pee-wee star Paul Reubens, became interested in the project after seeing the revival of Reubens’  stage comedy The Pee-wee Herman Show, a send-up of children’s television shows that brought his lovable man-child character Pee-wee to the national spotlight in the early 1980s.

From there, and the two movies, Pee-wee went on to star in the acclaimed Saturday-morning children’s show Pee-wee Playhouse, a lighter version of his stage show. Playhouse ran from 1986 to 1990 receiving widespread acclaim and garnering 15 Emmys, before Reubens’ star descended due to his arrest for indecent exposure in 1991.

In 2008, Russell Brand appeared in Forgetting Sarah Marshall as his alter ego Aldous Snow, a cocky, obnoxious rock star who nabs hottie Kristen Bell from her long time boyfriend. Brand nearly stole the movie out from a cast of gifted comedy heavy-weights. Brand reprises that role in Get Him to the Greek, a comedy/road-trip/buddy movie in which he is paired with Jonah Hill.

Jonah Hill is quickly becoming my go-to guy when it comes to comedy. Although he is usually relegated to supporting character status, I find him to be a welcome addition to any ensemble cast. Now, he gets to flex his muscles (the acting sort, there are none to be found on his actual body) and take a jab at leading man status. With his doughy physique Hill makes an unconventional leading man, but he is strangely endearing and relatable.

As odd as this pairing might seems, it works exceptionally well. Also unexpected, but equally hilarious, is the casting of Sean Combs as an ego-maniacal record executive who provides some of the film’s biggest laughs, believe it or not.

I got a chance to sit down for a round table discussion with Jonah Hill and John C. Reilly, two of the stars of Cyrus, which premiered at the 2010 SXSW festival. Hill plays Cyrus, a 21 year old living with his mother (Catherine Keener) who develops an antagonistic and competitive relationship with his mom’s boyfriend played by Reilly.

So do you think the John C. Reilly era of a romantic lead in a comedy is finally here?

John C. Reilly: I hope so. I’m a very romantic type person. I like doing parts like this, and I think that there are a lot of people out there who are not represented in movies, whose stories don’t get told.

You know what I’m talking about (to a male journalist.) Neither of us look like Brad Pitt, let’s not fool ourselves.

Your characters had some similarities and some differences, you both have a co-dependence thing, did that come into play when you preparing as far as how your characters related to each other?

Funny Or Die is one of those websites that brings wasting time on the internet, and our favorite comedians together. Originally created by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, the minds behind Anchorman, Step Brothers, and Taladega Nights, the site was meant as a place for comedians to come together and contribute for the masses.

The site has had such contributors as Zach Galifiniakis, Judd Apatow, Ed Helms, Don Cheadle, Tim Meadows, James Franco, Aziz Ansari, Tom Lennon, and countless others. HBO finally caught wind of the site’s growing popularity and have put together a weekly anthology collection, which premieres this week.

The show will have some of our favorite bits, such as Drunk History, Just 3 Boyz, Hold Up, Between 2 Ferns, and many more. The first episode hits this Friday, February 19th at midnight, and looks to be a good one.

Check out an exclusive new preview of the coming episodes after the jump, and be sure to keep it here for all the updates we can bring you on HBO’s Funny or Die Presents.

Rather than tell you what I think I should, I decided to come clean on this list. For instance, I am aware that A Serious Man might technically and artistically be a cut above some of these, but I just didn’t enjoy it as much. I’ll also preface this by saying since I was covering most of the main-stream movies this year, there were a lot of independent movies I didn’t see, so they may not appear on the list. The film title links to a review when applicable.

Up In The Air – Buoyed by a trio of fantastic actors, I found this movie to be utterly charming. Directed by Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking, Juno), the movie is touching, prescient, original, and funny. Vera Farmiga, George Clooney and Anna Kendrick all received Golden Globe acting nominations.  George Clooney’s depiction of a traveling man who keeps any type of human interaction at arm’s length is effortless, and is a joy to watch.

A Single Man – This film is still in limited release, so many people have not seen it, but I was absolutely blown away by designer Tom Ford’s directorial debut. He brings an artistic eye to the story of a gay man in 1962 who has recently lost a live-in companion. Heavy stuff, and Colin Firth gives a truly amazing performance that will break your heart.

Julianne is a stunning aging beauty who longs to have a relationship with the emotionally unavailable George. Universally relatable to anyone who has ever been in love, or experienced unrequited love. Seamlessly shifting from sepia, black and white, and color, the film is gorgeous. Beautifully scored by Abel Korzeniowsky as well.

When you hear a title like that, it’s pretty easy to immediately think it’s just a really bad joke, or possibly part of our Fan Film Friday series. Sadly, this new trailer is neither. From Silver Nitrate Films, the brains behind such films as S. Darko and Rob Schneider’s Big Stan comes The 40 Year Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It.

The premise is basically Scary Movie aimed towards anything that has had Judd Apatow’s name on it in the past five years. There are spoofs for things like The 40 Year Old Virgin to Superbad. They are all included. It’s a shame that the parody machine has gotten so out of control that studios are now giving the green light to projects that actually satire…satires. Shouldn’t that open up a black hole somewhere?

The film has got an “all-star” cast including Bryan Callen, who was on the first four seasons of MadTV, and Noureen DeWulf, the star of all three Pulse Films. The movie is set to go straight to DVD, through Twentieth Century, which is good because the title may not actually fit on a movie theater marquee.

Check out the almost NSFW trailer after the jump.

If a movie has Judd Apatow’s name somewhere in the credits, it’s bound to make me laugh hard enough to pee my pants. I just associate his name with the type of comedic quality that I’ve seen in movies like Superbad, Pineapple Express, and Role Models. So between that and the fact that the movie has some incredible casting in Michael Sera and Jack Black, I had some pretty high expectations going into Year One. Those expectations, unfortunately, were set a bit too high.

The plot of Year One is pretty predictable. This caveman named Zed, (Jack Black), and his sidekick Oh, (Michael Cera) get kicked out of their caveman village after breaking some rules. After they leave and discover the big wide world outside of their primitive village (including several biblical figures and places that didn’t exist during the time of the cavemen), their home gets destroyed and their girlfriends get kidnapped. The rest of the movie revolves around them rescuing these girlfriends while also learning a little bit about themselves.

Funny People, this summer’s collaboration between Judd Apatow and Adam Sandler, looks to be shaping up into quite the film. As of late, it looks like the marketing team has taken a few tips from last year’s Tropic Thunder as the website George-Simmons.com goes live.

George Simmons is the pseudo-biographical main character that Sandler is playing in Funny People, who has done a string of bad comedies over the years. With the launch of the site, we now get a peak at some of the very bad comedies…and they’re actually pretty funny. Of course, the clips are meant to be bad on purpose, but it’s nice to see Hollywood turn a mirror on some of the bad stories that have been in recent films.

For example, here’s the synopsis for the fake film Re-Do:

Craig, a workaholic lawyer, never made time for his relationships. Alone and depressed on his 40th birthday, he wonders about the life he could have lead. But be careful what you wish for…you might just find yourself in diapers! When a wizard gives Craig a second chance at his youth, he discovers that sometimes it takes becoming a baby to learn how to be a man.

Check out a clip from the fake film, also starring Drag Me to Hell’s Justin Long, after the jump. Also rolled out on the site are clips for Sayonara Dave and Dog’s Best Friend. Funny People hits theaters July 31.