Filmmaker Adam McKay and actor Will Ferrell were two peas in a pod at one point, spending decades collaborating on fan favorite comedies like Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, and Step Brothers. It seemed as if the pair would have continued to make new movies for years to come, but that came to an end in 2019 when they announced that they were ending their professional relationship by dissolving their joint film company. At the time, they noted in a joint statement that they were going to remain friends with the door open for future collaborations.

"The last 13 years could not have been more enjoyable and satisfying for the two of us at Sanchez Productions," the statement read, per Deadline. "We give massive thanks to our incredible staff and executives and all the writers, directors and actors we worked with through the years. The two of us will always work together creatively and always be friends. And we recognize we are lucky as hell to end this venture as such.”

That was an optimistic enough way to end things as it was, but it doesn't appear as if there are going to be any more collaborative projects anytime soon after all. In fact, they're not even friends at all anymore. In a new profile on Adam McKay for Vanity Fair, the filmmaker says this all stems from his planned miniseries based on the rise of the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1980s. At one point, Will Ferrell was attached to play former Lakers coach Jerry Buss, and as a big Lakers fan, he was very excited about the role. McKay ultimately decided that Ferrell didn't feel right for the part, and he recast the role with Ferrell's Step Brothers co-star John C. Reilly. These kinds of recastings are unfortunate but rather commonplace in Hollywood, but even so, McKay admits he did Ferrell wrong by not first speaking with him about it first.

"I f*cked up on how I handled that. It’s the old thing of keep your side of the street clean. I should have just done everything by the book. In my head, I was like, ‘We’ll let all this blow over. Six months to a year, we’ll sit down, we’ll laugh about it and go, It’s all business junk, who gives a sh*t? We worked together for 25 years. Are we really going to let this go away?’ [But he] took it as a way deeper hurt than I ever imagined and I tried to reach out to him, and I reminded him of some slights that were thrown my way that were never apologized for.”

McKay says he's sent emails to Ferrell that have gone unreturned, and as of now, it doesn't seem like there is any indication of that changing. Fans of both will have to enjoy their separate projects for now, but hopefully, the two will be able to mend their friendship at some point in the future. This news originates from Vanity Fair.