It’s been eleven months since we had any news on its progress, but Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg are still intent on making their football comedy 3 Mississippi happen. A big break has come in from THR, who say that John Morrison and Sean Anders have entered talks to rewrite and, in the case of the latter, direct the film for a September start.

Back when Alec Baldwin was thrown into the casting discussion (there’s no mention of him this time around), producer Adam McKay said the following about 3 Mississippi:

“It’s about these two rival families from — we’re thinking Philadelphia but we need to check in with Wahlberg and Ferrell and see what kind of accents they want to do. Alec Baldwin is the patriarch of one of the families, and Wahlberg is his son. He saw the Kennedys playing football on their front lawn at Thanksgiving, and boom, that’s it: ‘Anything the Kennedys do, we’re doing.’ His family starts playing the other family that lives across the park from them. Over the years, Baldwin’s family hasn’t done too well — they own a crappy little bar in town — while the other family, which Will’s character eventually becomes the patriarch of, becomes really successful. The game gets nastier and nastier as the years go on, and Ferrell’s family starts just destroying the other family. After a massive heart attack, Baldwin’s character’s dying wish is that his estranged son, Mark, take over the game and finally win one. So Wahlberg has to put this ramshackle, convict, gambling-addict family back together again and beat the richies. The whole spirit of it is that it’s just a giant, fun ensemble comedy. We want to populate it with people we love. There’s a funny subplot with Rob Riggle where he’s a gay cousin that Wahlberg’s family sort of turned their backs on but he played football at Fresno State and they need him. We’re going to try to get Jeremy Renner to play an ex-con. The idea is to bring in, like, 15 people that we love in and just do a big, funny holiday movie.”

I’m actually kind of elated at that whole prospect — if only because it sounds like such a good time — and, personally, I think they’ve found the right guys to tackle (pun honestly not intended) it all. Although their new film (That’s My Boy) comes across as a little too “Sandler,” Sex Drive and Hot Tub Time Machine depict the kind of ludicrous scenario described above with wit and, most importantly, relative economy. That’s just the kind of approach I’d like to see in a Ferrell-Wahlberg football comedy, after all.

How do you feel about Morrison and Anders jumping on board Mississippi?