Ian McShane, whose image in the popular imagination has recently taken a rather drastic turn -- "He used to be such a nice antiques dealer, but now it's 'c*cksucker' this, and 'f*ck' that ..." -- will be going in yet another new direction with his newest movie role. According to this morning's Variety, McShane will appear in the upcoming Lonely Island (AKA SNL -- and Lazy Sunday -- team Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer) project, Hot Rod. As we reported earlier, the film -- in which Samberg stars -- tells the story of "an accident-prone daredevil who plans to jump Snake River on a moped in an effort to emulate his hero Evel Knievel and win over his hard-to-please stepfather." (Because, you know, most adults are impressed by idiotic stunts from their kids.) McShane will play the stepdad, which should give him a chance to both swear copiously and be funny, something Al Swearengen does mostly unintentionally. Plus, he'll get to wear clean clothes for once.Though there's no indication of a start-date in Variety's latest update, when the film was originally announced the intention was to get to work next month, after SNL finished for the summer. Assuming McShane will be done shooting We Are Marshall by then, one assumes the project is still on the same schedule.
