Mandate Pictures has hired Jonathan Levine to direct and Golden Globe nominee Anna Kendrick to star in its untitled James McAvoy and Seth Rogen comedy.

Levine’s arrival re-energises the project, formerly called I’m With Cancer, after Nicole Holofcener dropped out late last year. Regarded as one of the most talent young film-makers working in the US today, Levine’s credits include The Wackness and All The Boys Love Mandy Lane.

Mandate International will commence pres-sales at the EFM in Berlin in February. Principal photography is scheduled to commence in Vancouver next month.

Kendrick, riding high on a Golden Globe nomination for her performance opposite George Clooney in Up In The Air, will play a psychologist assigned to a young man who learns he has cancer.

Will Reiser wrote the screenplay and is serving as executive producer alongside Mandate president Nathan Kahane. Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and Ben Karlin are producing.

Kendrick will be seen later this year in Scott Pilgrim Vs The World with Michael Cera and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.

Mandate’s senior vice-president of business affairs Dan Freedman negotiated the deals for the company.

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