With the admittedly slender possibility of some involvement in the second Hobbit movie on the horizon, you couldn’t blame Sean Astin if he were to simply while away his time sitting by the phone, waiting for it to ring.
Instead, the former Samwise Gamgee is keeping busy. He’s signed on to star in an indie comedy called Demoted, along with the always-hilarious David Cross and Michael Vartan.
Astin and Vartan will play tyre salesmen who delight in playing practical jokes on their co-worker (Cross). When he becomes their boss, he demotes them to secretarial jobs – and so they begin to plan their revenge…
Two more actors also signed on today to the project, which is written by Dan Callahan, and will be directed by J. B. Rogers, whose last released film was the surprisingly decent American Pie 2.
Sara Foster – who promised to make a splash with The Big Bounce, before it became The Big Bomb – will play Astin’s wife, who is tricked into believing that her hubby has actually been promoted, while veteran character actress Celia Weston will play a secretary who convinces Astin and Vartan’s characters to fight back against Cross.
Parallel Zide, the genre arm of Parallel Media, is bankrolling the movie, which starts filming next month in Michigan.