For those who miss the crude brilliance of HBO’s Eastbound and Down, have heart. The Eastbound team is reuniting for a new film, The Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter. Deadline is reporting that Jody Hill will be directing, with Danny McBride starring alongside (a non-Eastbounder) Josh Brolin.
The Hill/McBride duo will be collaborating again on HBO as well, in the upcoming comedy Vice Principals. But before that, Hill will be returning to feature filmmaking with this new project, his first since 2009’s Observe and Report (the new film is set to begin production in the fall).
The Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter’s script is co-written by Hill, John Carcieri, and McBride — the trio who make up Rough House productions (responsible for The Fist Foot Way, Eastbound, and the other collaborations mentioned). Currently though, nothing more about the new project is known, but given the group's other work, it will probably be darkly funny and hugely cringe-worthy (in the best of ways).
As for Vice Principals, which will feature Walton Goggins and Shea Whigham starring alongside McBride:
Vice Principals tells the story of a high school and the people who almost run it: the vice principals: Neal Gamby (McBride) and Lee Russell (Goggins), a conniving politician who enters into an unholy alliance with Gamby.
Whigham plays Ray Liptrapp, the new husband of Gamby’s ex (Busy Phillips), and frequent target of his hostility, despite being a genuine and supportive guy.
Hill and McBride’s work often focuses on a theme of power, and those who don’t have it (but think that they do). The Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter will probably address something similar, and like all of Rough House’s productions, it will surely be a beautifully crass wonder to behold.
