Ferrell, Wahlberg join 'The B Team'

Adam McKay to direct comedy for Sony

By MICHAEL FLEMING

Sony Pictures Entertainment has acquired "The B Team," a spec pitch package for an Adam McKay-directed action comedy that will team Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg as cops.

Chris Henchy and McKay will write the script.

Pic will be a co-production between Gary Sanchez Prods. and Mosaic. Sony has not set a release date on the film, but it is expected to go into production as quickly as the filmmakers can get it ready.

Sony intends to register the title "The B Team," a potential hurdle given that 20th Century Fox is mobilizing a movie based on TV series "The A-Team," with Joe Carnahan directing.

The comedy was pitched around town Tuesday by Endeavor and CAA, and Sony co-president Matt Tolmach moved quickly. Tolmach was comfortable committing to a film without a finished script because Columbia worked in the same fashion on "Talladega Nights" and "Step Brothers," both of which were set up with a pitch and the collaborative track record of McKay and Ferrell.

"Talladega Nights," which cost around $72 million, grossed $148 million domestically in 2006, and "Step Brothers," which cost around $65 million, grossed $100 million for Columbia Pictures in 2008.

The newcomer to this equation is Henchy, but he has ties to all the participants. He co-wrote "Land of the Lost," the Universal summer comedy that stars Ferrell. Henchy works for McKay and Ferrell's Gary Sanchez Prods., where he is co-executive producer of the GSP-produced HBO sitcom "East Bound & Down."

Henchy previously spent several seasons as co-executive producer of "Entourage," the HBO series on which Wahlberg is executive producer with Doug Ellin and Stephen Levinson.

A McKay-Ferrell comedy is a departure for Wahlberg, who stars next in the Peter Jackson-directed drama "The Lovely Bones."

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