Vir Das To Write & Potentially Star In ‘Country Eastern’ Comedy In Works At Fox From Sam Laybourne & Party Over Here

Courtesy of Fox

Fox has given a script commitment with penalty to Country Eastern, a single-camera comedy written by India’s top comedian and Bollywood star Vir Das. The intent is for Das to also star in the project, from Party Over Here, the production company founded by the Lonely Island’s Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, and CBS Studios. Fox Entertainment and CBS Studios will co-produce.

Sam Laybourne (Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist) will co-write Country Eastern with Das and will serve as showrunner of the comedy about a young wealthy man from India (a role earmarked for Das) who restarts his life in America with his family. While attempting to rebuild their lives in Memphis, Tennessee, he decides to pursue his passion and become a country music singer. Only problem, he’s sh*t. Total sh*t. He’s going to have to gain some life experience in the States if he wants to have something ‘real’ to sing about.

Das and Laybourne executive produce with Samberg, Taccone, Schaffer and Ali Bell for Party Over Here, along with Reg Tigerman.

This would mark Das’ first U.S. series lead and his second series regular role following his stint on ABC’s spy dramedy Whiskey Cavalier. Das also created, executive produced and starred in the Netflix Indian dark comedy series Hasmukh.

As part of a deal with Netflix, Das has written, produced and headlined four stand-up specials for the streamer in five years, receiving an International Emmy nomination for his special For India. His most recent special, Outside In, was shot entirely in quarantine with audience members attending virtually from around the world.

Das, who has performed stand-up on six continents, has been making headlines with provocative material at a recent DC show. His Manic Man World Tour has set February-April, 2022 dates in the U.S. and Canada. He’s repped by UTA, Silver Lining Entertainment, and Isaac Dunham.

Laybourne most recently worked as an executive producer on the musical dramedy, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist with Lionsgate for NBC. He has two other broadcast projects in development, The Hug Machine at CBS, also with Party Over Here, and Down To Erin at ABC/20th TV with Hart Beat and Erin Andrews producing. Before that, he wrote on such shows as Black-ish, The Real O’Neals, Cougar Town and Arrested Development and was co-creator and co-showrunner of The Michael J. Fox Show. He is repped by UTA, Kaplan/Perrone, and Myman, Greenspan, Fox.

Party Over Here, repped by UTA, recently produced Season 2 of PEN15 for Hulu and Season 2 of I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson for Netflix. On the feature side, the company most recently produced the Samberg starrer Palm Springs, which streams on Hulu.