don-verdeanIlan Eshkeri has been hired to score the upcoming comedy Don Verdean. The film is directed by Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre) and stars Sam Rockwell, Jemaine Clement, Amy Ryan, Danny McBride, Leslie Bibb and Will Forte. The movie follows a Biblical archaeologist who is hired by a local church pastor to find faith-promoting relics in the Holy Land and is forced to get creative after a fruitless expedition. The director has also co-written the screenplay with Jerusha Hess. Brandt Andersen, Dave Hunter and Jason Hatfield are producing the project. Eshkeri has previously scored the Jerusha Hess-directed romantic comedy Austenland. Don Verdean is set to premiere next month at the Sundance Film Festival.

Eshkeri’s upcoming projects also include Aardman Animations’ Shaun the Sheep,  Kevin Macdonald’s Black Seas and James McTeigue’s Survivor. The composer has also scored the indie drama Still Alice starring Julianne Moore, which will be released in select theaters in January following an awards-qualifying run this month.