It hurts me to say it, but it looks as though the rule of the funny-big-redheaded-bearded Jew is over. It was only a year ago that Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill and Jason Segel were the go-to-guys for the R-rated comedy, but Apatow's most recent directorial project, Funny People, did not have the same nearly the same kind of success as its predecessors, earning only $51 million during its seven week run. One thing that fans did latch on to in the film, however, was Aziz Ansari's character Randy, who played a major role in the viral marketing prior to the film's release. Obviously impressed by Ansari's performance, it seems as though Apatow has found his new muse.

According to Variety, Universal and Apatow have picked up three pitches from Ansari and Human Giant co-star Jason Woliner, who will also direct the projects. The first film is a spin-off based on the aforementioned Randy (Apatow first mentioned the project back in July), the second is a road movie about two guys who work for a motivational speaking company (tentatively titled Let's Do This), and the third will follow a humiliated astronaut who returns to space to clear his name.

If there is any guy in Hollywood that can come back from a fall, it's Apatow - he is the comeback kid. Ansari is certainly a rising star, with a feature role in Parks and Recreation, a comedy special coming out in January and a large part in Nicholas Stoller's Get Me To The Gig (formerly Get Him To The Greek), the Apatow-produced pseudo-sequel to Forgetting Sarah Marshall. With Seth Rogen now out there fighting crime as the Green Hornet and voicing an alien in the Simon Pegg-Nick Frost film Paul, it was time for Judd to find a new partner, and it appears that he is small and Indian.