Writer/director Adam McKay is taking a break from collaborating with Will Ferrell and helping shepherd FunnyOrDie.com to get serious for a moment. Deadline is reporting that McKay will be using his moviemaking chops to take up a cause; specifically, he'll be producing a new documentary about the troubling and increasing dropout trend in American schools. He won't be behind the camera on this one, leaving that to director Jason Pollack, whose earlier documentary The Youngest Candidate appeared at the 2009 Los Angeles Film Festival.

The untitled documentary will shoot this year and hit screens in the fall of 2012. McKay told Deadline that the timing of that release is no coincidence. He hopes that the documentary will bring more attention to the troubled American school system just in time for the next presidential election. Whether the documentary offers up any viable solutions or simply gets people thinking, it's an issue that shouldn't be ignored: Deadline cites current dropout statistics in major cities as being over 50%. You'd think our current culture devalued learning and teachers or something, but no...that's clearly ridiculous.

While McKay is definitely best known for goofy big-screen projects such as Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, in some ways this documentary would be a return to his roots. Back in the late '90s he spent some time writing for Michael Moore's short-lived documentary series The Awful Truth. Moore's name is justifiably divisive, so hopefully McKay's foray into the world of documentaries will prove more informative than inflammatory.