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Will Ferrell fans should be happy to hear there are more films like the hit Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby to come.

Ferrell and writing partner Adam McKay — the director of Talladega Nights and 2004’s Anchorman — aren’t quite ready to let go of the films’ cocky, buffoonish main character. They are already working on another picture to complete what they are now calling a “mediocre American-man trilogy.”

“That’s kind of endlessly fascinating to us. It’s just really funny to us,” Ferrell, 39, said while promoting Talladega Nights, which is the No. 1 film in North America.

“People who think they are great and are not, and are far from it.”

They haven’t finished pitching the idea to the studios so neither will say which character will follow sexist San Diego news anchor Ron Burgundy and Talladega Nights’ racing legend Ricky Bobby. One thing is for sure: Only Ferrell can play him.

“Will playing prideful, mediocre guys is a joke we never get tired of,” McKay says. “Will plays unearned hubris better than anyone.”

The wacky duo say their bizarre brand of comedy is born from pure imagination — McKay on a couch, Ferrell typing at a computer. (For example, McKay thought it would be funny to see a cougar attacking Ferrell; alas, in the movie, one does).

Whatever makes them laugh goes on to pal and arbiter of reason Judd Apatow, the Talladega Nights producer who also wrote and directed The 40-Year Old Virgin.

Their challenge is to keep some of the funny stuff that has nothing to do with the story in the movie.

“We often have this debate about when you walk out of a comedy, do you walk out going, ‘That was an amazing story. It changed my life, that story,’ ” Ferrell says with mock amazement. “Or do you say, ‘That was a funny line. Do you remember when this happened?’ ”

The battle comes when the script goes to the studio, he says.

“You always run into that thing where it’s like, ‘I would just cut this because it doesn’t make sense,’ ” Ferrell says. “And we’re like, ‘We know it doesn’t make sense. It’s just a funny thing that happens, a speed bump in the movie.’ You do not say, ‘That does not make sense! Stop the movie!’ ”

The world of NASCAR racing was a natural setting for a comedy, Ferrell says. “We kind of went completely backward about it because we started writing the script and then NASCAR came on board and then we started going to races,” he says.

“So in a weird way our ignorance allowed us to go to places that maybe if we knew too much, we’d be like, ‘Oh, they would never say or do that; let’s just think of the craziest thing.’ ”

McKay says he was “stunned at how cool NASCAR was” with the movie, considering how it is notorious for fiercely protecting its image.

He can recall racing honchos asking to cut only one gag, involving a driver who died behind the wheel.

“He was supposed to be an incredibly obese driver and he was eating chicken wings and had a heart attack,” McKay says. “I think they thought it was quite insulting.”

McKay and Ferrell share improv backgrounds, with Chicago’s Second City and Los Angeles’ The Groundlings respectively, and met during stints on NBC’s Saturday Night Live.

They can now pick and choose “dream people” for their movies, expanding the “frat pack” seen in Old School and Anchorman to include actors such as Da Ali G Show creator and star Sacha Baron Cohen as Ferrell’s nemesis.
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