EXCLUSIVE: Toni Collette and Thomas Haden Church, who last worked together in 2014 on Lucky Them, are reuniting on another project, the indie comedy Shriver which has a delightful premise. Shriver, a depressed often inebriated loner (Church), is mistaken for a renowned but reclusive author with whom he shares a name. He suddenly finds himself the subject of adulation and the center of attention at a writers conference celebrating the 20th anniversary of the book written by the real author. Shriver steps into the role, sparks a romance with the English professor (Collette) who runs the conference, and is about to pull it all off when the real Shriver appears.

Both Collette and Church were nominated for Best Supporting acting Oscars for breakout box office hits — Collette for The Sixth Sense and Church for Sideways and both have also each won an Emmy for their acting.

The project was written and will be directed by Michael Maren who wrote and directed the 2014 film The Short History of Decay. The project is being produced by Josh Kesselman at Thruline and Alfred Sapse.

ABC just recently gave the greenlight to the action dramedy pilot Unit Zero starring and executive produced by Collette who also stars in Fun Mom Dinner which was picked up at Sundance this year for theatrical release by eOne’s Momentum Pictures. Collette, whose most recent credit is Paramount’s xXx: Return Of Xander Cage, also won an Emmy for Lead Actress in United States of Tara.

Church, who also won an Emmy for Supporting Actor in Broken Trail, was in two big box office hits in recent years — Heaven is for Real with Greg Kinnear and the comedy Daddy’s Home with Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg. He also headlines HBO’s popular comedy Divorce with Sarah Jessica Parker.

Both are repped by CAA and Jen Turner at Finley Management.