Comedian Jeff Foxworthy will make his live-action onscreen feature debut with the sports comedy Crackerjack, which he is also exec producing.
Bryan Coley is writing and directing the indie project, while Darren Moorman, Mil Cannon, and Matthew Pope are producing. The production started shooting yesterday in Savannah, Georgia.
Newbie Wes Murphy stars as the titular Bo “Crackerjack” Bailey Jr., a homegrown irresponsible southern boy trying to deal with abandonment issues and maintain his relationship with his girlfriend, all while leading his church softball team to victory. Jeff Foxworthy is set for a supporting role as a softball announcer.
Coley is a theater director who used several local actors to round out the cast including Bethany Anne Lind, who plays Crackerjack's love interest.
While Foxworthy had his own eponymous TV show in the mid-1990s, his only other movie performances were voiced roles in Racing Stripes (2005) and direct-to-video The Fox and the Hound 2 (2006). Besides, he'll soon be heard in Sony's upcoming The Smurfs where he voices Handy Smurf.
Murphy has appeared in a small number of indie flicks, but may be best known for serving as Robert Pattinson‘s uncredited stand-in in Twilight.
The script is officially described as follows:
In the off-beat style of Raising Arizona, the story follows Bo “Crackerjack” Bailey, Jr. (CJ), an artful dodger skilled in avoiding the responsibilities of manhood. His residence of choice is a trailer, his ambitious career entails collecting Cabbage Patch dolls to sell on eBay, his venture into commitment is a four-year, pseudo-engagement to live-in girlfriend Sherry, and through it all, he immerses himself in his drug of choice: softball. But when Sherry learns she's pregnant and leaves until he can figure out how to be the real man she needs, CJ vows to become an upright, church-going man and give up softball. That is, until he finds out about – the Church League. And it's not always crystal clear just what Jesus would do…much less what CJ should do to be a man, on or off the field.
At this point in time no release date is available.
Are you surprised Jeff Foxworthy has never done any big-screen acting work save for voices?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbXkP_GZjsE[/youtube]
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