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Things have been eerily quiet on the Andy Dick front as of late (is he finally feeling his age since turning 40?), but Salon reports that Dick seems to be in classic, head-humping form down in Austin at the South by Southwest film festival, where he's showcasing his latest masterwork:

Speaking of satire gone awry, even the most abysmal failure among the films screened so far partakes of the protest theme. "Danny Roane: First-Time Director," written and directed by its star, cult comedian Andy Dick, has already become a murmured legend among those who were at the Saturday world premiere. Intended as a vicious satire of Hollywood's inanity and self-obsession, "Danny Roane" drags its cameo-laden cast into a downward spiral of gross-out humor and finally becomes exactly the thing it's trying to parody: a disastrous vanity project made by a damaged TV comic whose career has hit the skids.

Undoubtedly "Danny Roane" has cult-movie potential, but all the reasons that might happen are bad ones. Let's put it this way: James Van Der Beek plays himself in this film, or at least himself playing the lead character in Danny's autobiographical film, an alcoholic actor suffering from an unexplained bloody anal discharge. Not enough butt for you? Later in the film we see Dick himself passed out naked on TV actress Maura Tierney's front lawn, with a black Labrador eagerly exploring his hindquarters. Like most other reporters, I fled the Austin Convention Center's hall after the screening, and so missed the Q&A session in which Dick reportedly humped an audience member's head while mumbling vile obscenities. Maybe that'll show up on DVD, fans — but some distributor will have to buy the film first.

Here's to hoping a distributor has some mad money lying around to at least give the movie a run on home video. It would be an absolute tragedy if Dick covered his hindquarters in Labrador-enticing peanut butter take after take (and perhaps long after he called "cut" in a show of Method dedication to craft), only to watch his art fail to reach its intended audience.