Danny McBride, Hot Rod scene stealer, star of Paramount Vantage’s forthcoming The Foot Fist Way and a sharer of several cracked scenes with Nick Nolte in this autumn’s very funny Tropic Thunder, won’t be limiting himself to work on the big screen. In fact, after a very busy summer, he’ll be re-teaming with Jody Hill and Benjamin Best — fellow North Carolina School of the Arts alums, and his Foot Fist Way costars — for the tentatively titled Eastbound and Down, an HBO series about a fallen baseball hero who returns to his hometown to try to find some answers in his life.

“It’s [about] a John Rocker-type guy,” explains executive producer Adam McKay. “He’s used ‘roids and made inappropriate comments, burned every bridge in his life, so he goes back home, sleeps on his brother’s couch and has to teach gym class. But it’s on HBO, so it’s really fucked up — boobies, cocaine, all that stuff.” Add McBride, with a smile and shrug: “I said, ‘I don’t think you can name a TV show after the theme song of Smokey and the Bandit, but we’ll try it!’ And he’s not even headed east — he goes south. It makes no sense whatsoever.”