More and more often, Twitter is a place where movie news breaks even before a studio can put together a press release, and in some cases, things that are said on Twitter give us a glimpse of the corporate process that no press release would address.

Today, Adam McKay (who uses the handle @GhostPanther on Twitter) had this to say:

So bummed.  Paramount basically passed on Anchorman 2.  Even after we cut our budget down.  We tried.

Now, he's only got 140 characters, so he doesn't really offer up any details, and he hasn't followed up when questioned today, so it's unclear if they're able to take the film anywhere else.  I was actually surprised to see that this was a Paramount film, although maybe McKay had to offer it to Paramount first as part of his production deal for Gary Sanchez Productions.  The first film was released by Dreamworks, and I wonder if they get a shot at it now that Paramount's passed.

[UPDATE:  McKay just Tweeted the following at 4:15 PST -- To all who asked: no we can't do Anchorman 2 at another studio. Paramount owns it.]

As recently as a few months ago, when I spoke to Paul Rudd and Steve Carrell on the set of "Dinner For Schmucks," they seemed excited about what they were discussing as a follow-up, and a cast like this seems to be a studio's marketing dream come true.  I'm a little puzzled how, in this climate of sure-things-only, Paramount just turned down a movie that would star Will Ferrell, Steve Carrell, Paul Rudd, David Koechner, Christina Applegate, and more, especially after the way the first film performed on home video and the way its grown a fairly substantial cult since its theatrical release.

I'm not sure I need an "Anchorman" sequel, but the combination of this cast playing these characters is sort of irresistible, and I'd be at least interested in what the filmmakers had in mind.  I doubt they'd do this just to do it, and it sounds to me like they waited until they had an idea that really entertained them.

Too bad it looks like we're not going to get a chance to check it out for ourselves.

Can't get enough of Motion/Captured? Don't miss a post with daily HitFix Blog Alerts. Sign up now.

Don't miss out. Add Motion/Captured to your iGoogle, My Yahoo or My MSN experience by clicking here.

Not part of the HitFix Nation yet? Take 90 seconds and sign up today.

You can e-mail me at drew@hitfix.com or follow me on Twitter, where I'm DrewAtHitFix.