One of the films I was most eagerly awaiting was Three Mississippi(formerly Turkey Bowl), a comedy that would have combined a number of my favorite things into one nice little package. First, it was going to star Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg, who were perfect together in last year's The Other Guys. Second, it centered on the sport of football(not that boring soccer crap), specifically an annual touch football game between two warring families. With Alec Baldwin co-starring, Adam McKay set to direct, and a slew of promised cameos, there was little reason to think this wouldn't be the funniest movie of 2013.
Now the film looks like crap on a stick due to a number of sudden changes that have cropped up over the last few months. The latest change is the worst by far, with Wahlberg now apparently out of the picture, only to be replaced by the ever-coasting Adam Sandler. So what happened? Back in February, Wahlberg signed on to star in Lone Survivor, Peter Berg's long in the works Navy Seals flick that everyone seems so amped up over. With Wahlberg coming aboard, financing has been easier to come by, and so now a start date has been set for the fall, which is the same time Three Mississippi would have started rolling.
So how does that lead to Sandler settling in to fill Wahlberg's cleats? You have Paramount's surprising decision to push ahead with Anchorman 2 to blame for that. Last month, Adam McKay was replaced as director on Three Mississippi by Sean Anders, who just recently worked with Sandler on the terrible looking comedy, That's My Boy. You can figure out the rest, I'm sure.
There's no doubt that the film is going to be a box office smash. Sandler and Ferrell in their first major comedy pairing? It's basically a license to print money. However, Sandler hasn't done anything worth a squirt of piss in years, while Wahlberg, despite his many flaws, is a comedy dynamo given the right material. There's always the chance that Ferrell can help bring out the old Sandler, but I have my doubts. Maybe if they rewrite the script to make it a sequel to The Waterboy? Also, what are the chances those once promising cameos will now be filled by talent devoid hacks like David Spade, Rob Schneider, and Nick Swardson?
