Paul Giamatti (
Sideways) is to star in the comedy
Paper Man, according to Variety.
Giamatti will play a man struggling to recapture the spark that made him a successful novelist. His marriage also is disintegrating, and neither problem is helped by the presence of an imaginary superhero friend who has been with the writer since childhood. On Cape Cod, he strikes up a platonic relationship with a local high school girl that re-energizes him.
Writers Michele and Kieran Mulroney are to make their directorial debuts on the movie, and they are planning to begin shooting in early April.