Although Eugene Levy recently hinted that the influx of fake documentary-style TV shows meant that Christopher Guest had given up on making another film—thus consigning Levy to little beyond American Funeral to look forward to—it seems that Guest has taken an "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" attitude, or possibly just stopped telling Eugene Levy every damn thing he's thinking. According to Deadline, Guest and frequent collaborator Jim Piddock have landed a straight-to-series order at HBO for Family Tree, a mockumentary that follows Chris O'Dowd as a down-on-his-luck sort who inherits a box of mysterious heirlooms, leading him to explore his lineage and all the strange, comically idiosyncratic people that populate it. Guest and Piddock are both expected to appear on the show, suggesting that other members of Guest's usual company could also turn up as faces from O'Dowd's family tree—though maybe not Fred Willard, as no one wants to see him shake that branch.
[A single, lonely rimshot echoes across the silent plains, rolling unbroken through the stillness. Far away, a startled flock of Canadian geese takes flight. Eventually the rimshot reverberates beyond Earth's atmosphere, traveling light years as it searches vainly for ears to receive it. Over time, the rimshot gains sentience—and with it, self-doubt, as its thoughts inevitably turn to questioning why it was ever born. These thoughts cause only despair. Somewhere on the edge of the Abell 267 cluster, the rimshot buries itself in the volcanic crater of the first planet it can find, certain that there is no purpose behind its existence. Ironically, its vibrations are the divine spark that set in motion the evolution of a lifeform whose entire civilization will be based around Fred Willard masturbation jokes. The End.]