Matthew McConaughey is one of those guys who I like to see in films, but I just don’t want to see him act. Any time he tries any other take on a character other than being a charming Southern hippie-ish dude who loves ladies and a good drink, it seems to fail miserably. When he’s allowed to do that, no matter how inappropriate it may seem for the character as written, he never fails to entertain me. That’s why I can watch otherwise mediocre cable fare like Sahara or Two For The Money. However bad the film is, he seems to be having a great time onscreen, so why not?

Rather than trying to shoehorn the guy into roles, it makes more sense to get him material tailored to his personality, and now he seems to have found a perfect match in Surfer, Dude, a new film he’s co-producing under his j.k. livin’ (Which stands for “just keep living,” his mantra. No, seriously.) shingle with Tom Hanks’ Playtone company. In the film, McConaughey would somehow find it in himself to play a surfer who is undergoing some sort of an existential crisis. As seems to be the norm for people trying to get their material made these days, McConaughey is getting the film independently financed, and will try to sell it to a studio for distribution afterwards.

It’s not like he needs the training for this given his lifestyle, but he’s been surfing up a storm in Australia as he films Fools Gold with Kate Hudson. Surfer, Dude is scheduled to start production in early May.