I did not like Danny McBride’s Foot Fist Way, I thought it was cliched white trash comedy, but I thought he was the best thing in Pineapple Express and loved his contributions to Tropic Thunder. On June 5 he is starring opposite established funny man Will Ferrell in Land of the Lost, a film everyone looks at me strangely when I say, “I really think it could be funny.” That’s not a lie though, I really do. However, can McBride become more than the goofy sidekick and topline a successful feature film?
I won’t count Foot Fist Way against McBride since it was a very small film that was quickly picked up and released into 25 theaters at its widest. Hard to expect anything more than the $234,286 it earned when that is the case. But it appears he is getting a chance at a starring vehicle as Variety announces McBride will co-write Hench for Warner Bros. with Shawn Harwell.
The comedy will feature McBride as a football player who suffers a career-ending injury and needs a job. So he signs on as henchman to a successful villain.
The film is based on the AIT/Planet Lar graphic novel created by Adam Beechen and Mario Bello.
McBride and Harwell have worked together on HBO’s “Eastbound and Down” in which McBride stars as Kenny Powers, a burned-out major league ballplayer who returns to teach phys ed at his old middle school. The show was speculated to be in danger of being canceled after its six episode first season run, but back in early April HBO confirmed a second season would be coming and begin airing in 2010.
McBride is also co-starring in Your Highness with James Franco for Pineapple Express helmer David Gordon Green, a film that follows two spoiled and arrogant princes in a medieval fantasy setting. When an evil wizard casts a spell on their father and kidnaps the older prince’s fiance, they’re forced to go on a quest to save their family and the kingdom. McBride co-wrote the script with Ben Best.
