Will Ferrell’s Eurovision film: what we know so far

Will Ferrell’s next project will be a comedy set in
the eccentric world of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Deadline reports that the premise of
Eurovision “revolves around the wildly popular and
long-running international TV music competition”.

So what do we know about the forthcoming film?

Ferrell will write, produce and star in the
project

Eurovision is clearly a labour of
love for the Anchorman star. As well as taking the lead
role, he is one of the film’s producers and will also write the
script, alongside former Saturday Night Live head writer
Andrew Steele.

Ferrell’s comedy-writing chops are well
established – he and partner Adam McKay have penned a string of box
office hits including Anchorman, Step Brothers
and The Other Guys.

It will be a musical

Unsurprisingly, given the setting, Eurovision is being described
as a “musical”, which would give Ferrell a chance to show off the
singing skills he memorably demonstrated in Step Brothers.

As for the movie’s actual plot, the producers are
“keeping mum” for now, says Vulture, “but it’s not too wild to imagine
Ferrell portraying an eccentric performer trying to win the
competition”.

He did on-the-ground research at this year’s
contest

Eagle-eyed viewers spotted Ferrell among the revellers
at this year’s contest in Lisbon last month, sitting alongside “a
senior figure from European Broadcasting Union”, Buzzfeed reports.

The presence of an American movie star at a
quintessentially European institution might have surprised some
onlookers, but it turns out Ferrell is a hardcore Eurovision
fan.

The star told French website 20 Minutes that he has been watching the
contest since his Swedish wife introduced him to the phenomenon in
1999. His appearance in Lisbon wasn’t even his first time at
Eurovision – he also attended the 2014 final in Copenhagen.

It will be made by Netflix

Eurovision will be a Netflix Original, available
for instant streaming on the site upon its as-yet-unknown release
date.

Ferrell joins Will Smith, Ben Stiller and Angelina
Jolie on a growing list of Hollywood stars making films for the
streaming service, which plans to release 86 feature-length
Originals this year, Fortune reports – “far more than every other
top studio competitor”.