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.