Will Ferrell turned down a multimillion-dollar offer to take part in a sequel to “Elf”, the hugely successful Christmas classic.
In the 2003 film, Ferrell plays Buddy, who as a child is accidentally taken to the North Pole and ends up being raised among Santa’s elves. As an adult, he travels to New York in search of his real father.
The film grossed 228.9 million dollars, and naturally a sequel was considered, but Ferrell did not like the script, and not even the offer of 29 million dollars convinced him.
In a 2021 interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Ferrell said the premise of the sequel felt “reheated” and that he would not have been able to promote the film seriously.
“I would have had to promote the film honestly, which would sound something like: ‘Oh no, it’s not good. I just couldn’t turn down that much money’,” he said at the time.
“And I thought: ‘Can I even say those words? I don’t think so, so I don’t think I can make the movie.’”
But the lack of magic in the “Elf 2” script may not have been the only reason Ferrell rejected the offer to return to his Christmas character. In a 2020 interview, James Caan, his co-star in the film, suggested other reasons for the sequel’s failure.
According to him, Ferrell and Jon Favreau, the director of “Elf”, did not get along well, and Ferrell would have refused to star in another film in the franchise if the director remained involved.
“The director and Will didn’t get along very well. Will wanted to make the movie, but he didn’t want the director, and that was in his contract, it was one of those things,” he said.
Images: Warner Bros. reproduction. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
