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The future isn’t so “up in the air” for Golden Globe nominee Anna Kendrick, nor is it whack for The Wackness director Jonathan Levine.

Levine — whose luck as a director has been marred by studio mishandlings of his first two films, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane and The Wackness — has signed on to direct the now untitled Mandate Pictures comedy previously known as I’m With Cancer, which is already set to star James McAvoy and Seth Rogen. Anna Kendrick has also joined the cast.

McAvoy stars as a 25-year-old who learns he has cancer, a character based on the real experiences of screenwriter Will Reiser who was diagnosed with cancer in his mid-20s and successfully battled the disease over several years. Kendrick has signed on to play Katherine, a young psychologist assigned to handle Adam’s case despite her lack of real life experience. It seems like a potentially great role for the whip-smart and ever-smart Kendrick, as she nailed the naive but ambitious transition counselor role in Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air. As for Levine, after his first two movies, I’m looking forward to seeing where he goes next. He’s a young director with an immense amount of technical talent and an attention to story and character that is rare. I would put him among the ranks of the next generation of great directors.

The film is being produced by Rogen, his writing partner Evan Goldberg, Reiser and Mandate president Nathan Kahane. It is set to begin shooting in February in Vancouver.