After his last film, Gentlemen Broncos, was slammed by critics and quietly went direct-to-DVD back in 2009, director Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite) has struggled to get his next movie up on the big screen. His heist comedy Masterminds was supposed to hit theatres back in August but it has since been delayed indefinitely as a result of the Relativity bankruptcy. It was starting to look like his other recent film, Don Verdean, might also be stuck in limbo, but now this week Lionsgate has broken their silence and released the first trailer.

The movie stars Sam Rockwell as a Biblical archaeologist who is hired by a small town pastor (Danny McBride) to find some sacred relics in order to generate publicity for their church. When he fails to turn up anything substantial, he and his partners (Jemaine Clement and Amy Ryan) are forced to come up with fake artifacts instead. Between the religious satire and the low brow humour, I can already see how this movie might rub some people the wrong way, but I’m still curious to check it out. Don Verdean hits select theatres and VOD on Dec. 11th; check out the trailer after the jump and see what you think.