Alan Ball already won an Oscar for writing American Beauty and created the long-running HBO success Six Feet Under, but he may be more powerful than ever now thanks to the campy, sexy and ubiquitous True Blood, which he created. His directorial debut Towelhead didn't turn out that well either critically or commercially, but he's giving directing another shot thanks to Paramount, where they've picked up a pitch for Ball's untitled next project.

According to Deadline Ball will direct and produce from a script from Elan Mastai, which is described only as "a dark comedy with a twist." Mastai has been keeping busy lately despite not having his name on any produced projects-- his Black List script The F Word is going into production at Fox Searchlight soon, he rewrote First Kiss for Warner Bros. and also is collaborating with This American Life producers Ira Glass and Alissa Shipp on an untitled breakup comedy for Paramount. There's no promise of when the Ball project will get started, but given how busy Mastai is and the fact that the Ball script has yet to be written, I'd expect a bit of a wait.