As Steve Carell moves into the spotlight, with Stephen Colbert not far behind, correspondents from “”The Daily Show”” are proving that they can do more than fake news.

Rob Corddry is next in line. Although he’s already a star in the eyes of most college students, he has a couple projects up his sleeve that might pave his way to mainstream success.

“”Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story,”” a hilarious mockumentary about the intense sport of paintball, opens tomorrow at The Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd., with Corddry in the title role.

While it has the “”Dodgeball”” sensibility going for it, it doesn’t have the star power. Corddry and Paul Sheer (the gap-toothed funnyman from VH1’s “”Best Week Ever””) are the biggest names involved. Coming straight from New York, the film will only be released in select cities. Tucson is lucky enough to be one of them.

“”I would love for it to be seen by a mass audience, but from the beginning it was destined to be seen only by comedy nerds.

It’s a hard movie to release,”” Corddry said in a phone interview from his “”Daily Show”” office. “”We just really wanted as many eyeballs on the movie as possible.””

The movie stars Corddry as paintball’s exiled superstar, banished from the game after he performed the paintball equivalent of injecting steroids: wiping paint off after being hit. The movie has been gaining steam with appearances and wins at film festivals since 2004.

One of the film’s many strengths is the talent it showcases in every role, no matter how small.

Luckily, most of Corddry’s friends are pretty funny, with many of the actors coming from the storied comedy group Upright Citizens Brigade. While the set-ups came from the writers, there was a lot of freedom for every comic to leave his or her mark.

“”The dialogue was completely improvised. The entire cast has worked together before at the UCB Theatre in New York. We had all had experience together and basically love finding excuses to continue to work together,”” Corddry said.

In fact, so much improv was done that much of it ended up on the cutting-room floor to achieve a 91-minute running time. Corddry explained that this may or not be a bonus for DVD fans when the film is released this summer.

“”We shot so much that never got used,”” he said. “”There’s going to be a ridiculous number of hours of extras. A boring amount of extras.””

Next up for Corddry is a sitcom pilot he shot for Fox called “”The Winner.”” He plays a successful man looking back at his more formative years. Corddry shot the film, written by talent from “”Family Guy,”” a couple of weeks ago in front of a live studio audience.

“”Hopefully it will work out. You can write the funniest jokes you want but at the end of the day, it’s about a bunch of shiftless idiots in North Hollywood attending a focus group for 50 bucks, which to be fair I used to do. I used to watch commercials and get $50,”” he said.

Also on the horizon are a couple of promising movies. One of them is directed by “”Freaks and Geeks”” co-creator Paul Feig, and the other is going to be the first feature from comedian Michael Ian Black, who Corddry claims has a fairly unique directing style.

“”Have you ever seen one of those bondage films where people get tied up and are hurt until they cry but you know it’s ok because there’s a safe word? It’s like that. Michael and I have a safe word,”” he said. “”I don’t know if all the actors had the same safe word.””

While sitcoms and movies are no doubt in Corddry’s future, we’re lucky enough to have him grace “”The Daily Show”” for a little more time.

So what’s it like to work in fake news? It’s like a regular job, Corddry said, just much better.

“”It’s a 9-to-5 job, eight-hour day, punch-in and go to your office kind of gig – only with free lunch and hookers all over the place,”” he said.