Staggering amount Will Ferrell turned down for Elf 2 because he 'didn't like the script'

Will Ferrell refused an enormous payday for a sequel to Elf for a specific reason.

Christmas is now well and truly on the way, and that means breaking out the Christmas movies to help get in the festive spirit.

While there are certainly plenty of films to choose from, Elf has become a firm holiday favourite, following Buddy, a human raised as a Christmas elf who heads back to the human world to meet his biological father.

Ferrell's bonkers, high-energy performance as Buddy the Elf is hilariously juxtaposed to James Caan's bone-dry portrayal of his jaded father.

The 2003 movie went on to be a big success, and as is often the case when a film does well, the studio was keen to do a sequel.

But while the sequel would have been highly lucrative, Will Ferrell turned it down for a specific reason.

Will Ferrell with 'Elf' costar James Caan and director Jon Favreau (James Devaney/WireImage/Getty)

This was simply because he didn't like the script, even though he was offered an eye-watering sum to reprise his role.

The Hollywood Reporter says that a script was completed and sent over to Ferrell, along with an outline of his pay package of a staggering $29 million.

However, even such a high sum wasn't enough, as Ferrell felt that he wouldn't have been able to promote the film 'from an honest place'.

The star felt that the sequel would simply not capture the magic of the first one, and would just be a payday.

He said: "I would have had to promote the movie from an honest place, which would've been, like, 'Oh no, it's not good. I just couldn't turn down that much money'.

"And I thought, 'Can I actually say those words? I don't think I can, so I guess I can't do the movie'."

Given that Elf made a whopping $228.9 million on a budget of just $33 million, and continues to be a Christmas favourite to this day, it's not like it was a financial flop.

Elf continues to be a Christmas classic over two decades on from its release (Warner Bros.)

But it may not have just been the quality of the script that stopped a sequel, with James Caan revealing to radio show The Fan in Cleveland in September 2020 that there was a disagreement between Ferrell and director Jon Favreau.

Referring to a sequel, Caan said: "We were gonna do it. And I thought, 'Oh my God, I finally have a franchise movie. I can make some money, let my kids do what the hell they want to do.'"

Unfortunately for Caan, things didn't work out that way, with the actor adding: "The director and Will didn't get along very well.

"Will wanted to do it, and he didn't want the director, and [Favreau] had it in his contract. It was one of those things."