Joe Swanberg makes his first mainstream film with 'Work Wife'

Joe Swanberg, the director behind Drinking Buddies, Happy Christmas and this year's Sundance hit Digging For Fire, has dominated the indie scene these past couple years, but it looks like he's ready to expand. The actor/director will work for New Line on their upcoming comedy Work Wife.

The Wrap reports on the director hire. Emily Halpern and Sarah Haskins, the creators behind ABC's short-lived sitcom Trophy Wife, wrote the screenplay, which centers on two 30-something lawyers who try to see if they can date their co-workers. Work Wife is the first feature film Swanberg directs that he did not write or co-write.

While Work Wife is most definitely at least a mild departure from the films Swanberg has made before — and he has made 17 since 2005 — the general concept doesn't sound too far out of his wheelhouse. If anything, it sounds like a more big-budget version of Happy Christmas, which starred Anna Kendrick, Melanie Lynskey, Lena Dunham and himself. Kendrick also starred previously in Drinking Buddies, which starred Jake Johnson and Olivia Wilde. Johnson, meanwhile, starred and co-wrote Digging For Fire, which also featured Lynskey, Kendrick, Orlando Bloom and Sam Rockwell, just to name a few.

Needless to say, his directing profile has grown in the past couple years, and this feels like the most natural step in his evolution. There's no word on who stars in this latest picture, but given how often he's worked with Kendrick, Lynskey and Johnson of late, don't rule them being in the picture it seems.

This is just one project Halpern and Haskins have in the works. They recently sold the comedies Lunch Lady and Booksmart to Universal and Fox, respectively, and also are working on the NBC series Televona, starring Eva Longeria, with The Office scribes Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky.