Last year Will Ferrell drew critical raves for his serious turn in Stranger than Fiction, a superb film that had the misfortune of opening the same weekend as a little movie called Borat. Swallowed up in the hype machine surrounding Sacha Baron Cohen's media phenomenon, Stranger than Fiction came and went with little fanfare.

With that in mind, Ferrell returns to familiar territory this week with the lighthearted comedy Blades of Glory. Sporting a hairstyle he describes as "the lovechild of Farrah Fawcett and Steven Seagal," Ferrell stars as Chazz Michael Michaels, the brash, cocky bad boy of American figure skating. When Michaels and his chief rival, the dandy Jimmy MacElroy (Jon Heder), are banned from the sport for brawling atop the medal podium, the two opt to exploit a loophole in the rules allowing them to compete as the first male/male pairs figure-skating team.

Try as I might, I can't envision any scenario in which this film could be anything less than hilarious. They had me at "male/male pairs figure-skating."

Indeed, the concept was an easy sell for Ferrell. "It really was just the pitch, the simple pitch that two guys become the world's first men's figure skating team," says Ferrell. "It was simple as that. It was obviously a funny premise that as soon as you told someone about it, they instantly started laughing. And the fact that, at least it had dawned on me: Why hasn't anyone made this movie before?"

More than anything, Blades of Glory is a vehicle to skewer the often bizarre world of figure skating, a sport that introduced the world to interesting folks like Tonya Harding and Brian Boitano, among others. "Everyone in the sport has a great sense of humor about it," he notes. "It's obviously recognized as a sport and it's super hard, but at the same time, while you're watching figure skating, you're like, 'Oh, look at that fake tuxedo they're wearing.' You watch it and admire it but also make fun of it all at the same time, and they know that."

After Blades of Glory, Ferrell looks to continue the sports comedy trend. He's currently in the midst of shooting Semi-Pro, based on the American Basketball Association, the short-lived competitor to the NBA in the 1970s. Casting itself as a hipper league than its uptight counterpart, the ABA featured flashy uniforms and outlandish personalities. "It's pretty realistic in that we're taking a lot from real promotions the actually did," Ferrell notes. "We've got the red, white and blue ball, a lot of afros and stuff like that.

Ferrell describes the film's comedic tone as similar to recent efforts like Blades of Glory and Talladega Nights, with one exception: "Semi-Pro is gonna be R-rated, so we can go even further with stuff," he says.

Ferrell also just finished writing another script with Adam McKay, his collaborator on Anchorman and Talladega Nights. The project will reunite Ferrell with his Talladega Nights co-star. "We had so much fun working with John C. Reilly that the three of us came up with a premise: We're essentially two grown men who still live with a parent, and those parents get married and we still live at home, so we're these two stepbrothers," explains Ferrell. "It's kind of like Brady Bunch meets Ordinary People. We're two 40-year-old guys who still live at home and we're still indignant about trying to get jobs."

Reilly and Ferrell could potentially be the next great comedy duo. In addition to starring together in Talladega Nights, they recently teamed up with Jack Black for an uproarious comedy sketch in this year's Academy Awards Ceremony. The sketch, which mocked the Academy's bias against comedy, breathed life into an otherwise bland awards celebration.

"Judd (Apatow) and Adam (McKay) wrote that whole song," says Ferrell. "But it was funny -- even though it was the Oscars asking us to do it, I don’t think the Academy got it. They kept saying during rehearsal, 'Oh that's so funny. That song is wonderful. Very funny.' But I think it went over their heads. They didn't know what we were saying. Or they were like, 'It's funny and you're right -- we won't vote for comedians.'"

Blades of Glory opens nationwide on Friday, March 30th.

Check out ReelzChannel.com's Blades of Glory page for clips from the film and more!