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The Landlord

Will Ferrell and Adam McKay have had huge success with films like Anchorman and Talladega Nights. But why are they turning their hands to viral video with their new short film The Landlord?

Wired have an interesting article explaining why:

How do you make a viral web hit that scores more than 7 million views in 24 hours? Film a two-minute clip in 45 minutes, keep to one location and rely on friends and family for cast and crew. Of course, it doesn’t hurt if you’re friends with comedian Will Ferrell, that your foul-mouthed 2-year-old daughter is hilarious or that venture capitalists on Sand Hill Road think you’re funny.

The rocket success of The Landlord, a video short made by former Saturday Night Live writer Adam McKay and his long-time friend Ferrell isn’t too surprising. What is, though, is that VCs from Sequoia Capital, known for backing the likes of Apple, Google, YouTube and Yahoo, had the foresight to set the whole thing up.

Several months ago, Sequoia went to Creative Artists with the idea for a site that relied on a mix of celeb and home-spun video clips that could be ranked by viewers — think of a cross between YouTube and Digg. Now Sequoia Capital is the backer of the site, named Funny or Die, which also offers up material from Gary Sanchez Productions, the company McKay runs with Ferrell.

Plus McKay explains why he’s attracted to the internet:

“On the web you do ideas you can’t use anywhere else. Like, a baby landlord would never work as a movie. We were excited by getting this chance to goof around with those kinds of ideas.”

Check out the rest of the article here and watch The Landlord here.

> Check out the Viral Video Chart
> More videos at Funny or Die