Ed Helms joins cast of Family Leave

Ed Helms has joined the Netflix comedy 'Family Leave'.

The 48-year-old actor has signed up to star in the film with Jennifer Garner that will be directed by McG.

The plot follows Jess and Bill Walker, who are doing their best to keep the family together as their children grow older, more independent and more distant.

After a chance encounter with an astrological reader causes the family to wake up with a full body switch – on the morning of the most important day of their lives – can the Walkers unite to land a promotion, college interview, record deal and soccer tryout?

McG, who has a long history with Netflix after working on movies such as 'The Babysitter' and 'Tall Girl', is to direct from a screenplay by Adam Sztykiel and will also produce with Wonderland partner Mary Viola.

Lawrence Grey and Ben Everard will produce for Grey Matter Productions along with Nicole King Solaka for Linden Entertainment. David Hyman and Jason Brian Rosenthal will executive produce.

Ed previously starred in 'The Hangover' trilogy and was grateful for the support of co-stars Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifianakis after he suffered a bout of food poisoning during the making of the second film in Thailand.

He recalled: "Zach and Bradley nurtured me through it, so the lesson there is: How meaningful it is to support each other in a really tough circumstance. In all those 'Hangover' movies, we shared the sense that we were a team. These productions were really fun but also really demanding and intense and it was important to show up for each other.

"There was just a deep shared respect and team spirit. There was an intense professional ethos on those sets that I really appreciated and learned a lot from. It pushed me to rise to the occasion."