Will Ferrell revealed the original Anchorman plot and it's nuts

Will Ferrell stars as Ron Burgundy in Anchorman. Photo / Supplied

When Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy hit theatres in 2004, it instantly became a quotable classic. But the original plot of the comedy smash was insanely different to what fans saw on the big screen.

Appearing on the latest episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast, Ferrell admitted Anchorman was his favourite movie to make - but "the first incarnation of that was maybe a little too weird".

"The first version of Anchorman is basically the movie Alive, where the year is 1976, and we are flying to Philadelphia, and all the newsmen from around the country are flying in to have some big convention," he said.

"Ron convinces the pilot that he knows how to fly the charter jet, and he immediately crash-lands it in the mountains. And it's just the story of them surviving and trying to get off the mountainside.

Brian Fantana (PAUL RUDD), Ron Burgundy (WILL FERRELL), Champ Kind (DAVID KOECHNER) and Brick Tamland (STEVE CARELL). Photo / Supplied

"They clipped a cargo plane, and the cargo plane crashed as well, close to them, and it was carrying only boxes of orang-utans and Chinese throwing stars. So throughout the movie we're being stalked by orang-utans who are killing, one by one, the team off with throwing stars.

"And Veronica Corningstone keeps saying things like, 'Guys, I know if we just head down we'll hit civilisation.' And we keep telling her, 'Wrong'. She doesn't know what we're talking about. So that was the first version of the movie."

After rewriting the script and making it closer to the story that eventually hit screens, Ferrell and his writing partner Adam McKay struggled to get studio interest. " ... We had, I think, 10 rejections in one day," he said.

The script was stuck at DreamWorks when Ferrell's 2003 film Old School came out. But when executives saw its success at the box office, they decided to make Anchorman.

Anchorman hit cinemas the following year and raked in more than $119 million at the box office globally. A sequel, Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, followed in 2013.