Elijah Wood to star in comedy for Dignity Film Finance (DFF).

Jesse Israel of Ineffable Pictures and Heidi Jo Markel of Eclectic Pictures will produce The Late Bloomer and DFF president Maggie Monteith (pictured) will serve as executive producer and finance.

Production is scheduled to commence in January 2013. Brent Emery of Coup d’Etat Films will also produce while Ineffable Pictures’ founder Raphael Kryszek is on board as executive producer.

Randall Einhorn will direct the story, based on Joe Nussbaum, Paul Kaplan and Mark Torgove’s adapted screenplay of the 2001 memoir Man Made: A Memoir Of My Body by Ken Baker.

The Late Bloomercentres on a man approaching his 30th birthday who learns his body has not gone through puberty due to a medical block. When the condition is treated his body catches up over the course of several tumultuous weeks.

“The combination of Einhorn and Wood is exceptional, as we’ve seen with the success of Wilfred,” Monteith said. “I know that they will honour Baker’s true story in a very entertaining way.”

Wood will next be seen in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opposite Martin Freeman, Ian McKellan, Richard Armitage, Orlando Bloom and Cate Blanchett. Warner Bros will release in December.

”[The Late Bloomer is] one of the most original and funny scripts we have come across in some time and for AFM we believe the buyers are going to love it too,” Cargo Entertainment managing partner Marina Grasic said.

Cargo’s sales slate includes The Angriest Man In Brooklyn, which has begun production in New York and stars Mila Kunis and Robin Williams.