When you start your week by winning an Oscar, as Descendants writers Nat Faxon and Jim Rash did, you would think that things couldn’t get much better career-wise in the next four days. Why, they even gently mocked Angelina Jolie on stage and got away with it. But much like Jack Donaghy on Leap Day, the duo seem intent on making extra sure that they’re doing better than the rest of us this week: Variety reports that Rash and Faxon have sold a Kristen Wiig-starring comedy to Indian Paintbrush, in a “competitive situation that drew multiple offers.” Well, la-ti-da.
And not content to just sell a movie with one of the most in-demand comedic actresses around only a few days after winning an Oscar, Faxon has also landed a starring role in Abby Elliott’s new Fox pilot, Ned Fox Is My Manny. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Faxon will play “manny” Ned Fox, brother to Abby Elliott’s Kate Fox, in a cast that also includes Lucy Punch of Bad Teacher fame, Echo Kellum, and Maggie Jones. This isn’t Faxon’s first crack at a Fox pilot: He also had a role in the not-quite-there sitcom Happy Hour back in 2006. Here’s hoping his recent luck continues and his turn as a manny goes a little better. Also, that everyone stops using the word “manny.”