In a continuing creative victory for horse-geezered men around the world, HBO has brought Alexander Payne on board as the director of its new series Hung. Picked up by the network less than a month ago, the dark comedy is about "a well-endowed man ... who was once a high school sports legend, but is now plodding along in middle age as a struggling father and high school basketball coach. His luck begins to change, however, when he figures out a way to use his best asset." Or, as we hear creators Colette Burson and Dmitry Lipkin pitched it, "Kind of like Sideways, but with a huge dick where the pinot noir goes."

Clearly that's all Payne — himself long entrenched among Hollywood's generously beschlonged elite — had to know before signing on to his first TV directing gig. The pilot is in the works as we speak, with casting announcements soon to follow; we expect no less than Payne alum Thomas Haden Church to sign on as the lead, while Zak Efron, breaking through in his first real young adult role, will play the troubled son coming to terms with his own one-eyed, pavement-scraping inheritance.

• Alexander Payne signs on for 'Hung' [Variety]