By the time the clock runs out on 2011, one thing will be clear, Jason Sudeikis will be the comedy equivalent of Jude Law circa 2004. Hell, barely six months are out and Sudeikis has already been in “Hall Pass,” “Horrible Bosses” (opening this weekend) and he even put on a suit and hosted the MTV Movie Awards last month. And coming up, he’s got two more raunchy comedies on the way, with “A Good Old Fashioned Orgy” and if we’re going to cheat a little, he’s got an appearance in the next year’s omnibus comedy “Movie 43” already in the can. And if returning for another year on “Saturday Night Live” this fall isn’t enough, he’s going to get in one more gig before he has to go back to pitching sketches to Lorne Michaels.
Variety reports that Sudeikis has joined the third and final season of “Eastbound & Down.” The popular HBO comedy stars Danny McBride as Kenny Powers, a washed up, foul mouthed major league pitcher who returns to his hometown to try and figure out what to do next. Sudeikis will spend a lot of time with McBride as he’s set to play Shane, one of Kenny’s new friends and presumably yet another reason for the actor to improv some salty dialogue.
While there’s no word yet, we presume production will kick off this summer before Sudeikis returns to ‘SNL,’ with the show likely to premiere late 2011 or early 2012. It’s a strong addition to “Eastbound & Down” which looks to be going out with a bang but we do hope that Sudeikis has a few more tricks up his sleeve as he’s essentially been playing the same character in everything we’ve seen him in for the past little while. At least Jude Law mixed it up a bit.