Now there’s a combo you’d never expect to see. Director of offbeat indie comedies that tend to lean towards the darker elements of life (Sideways, About Schmidt), Alexander Payne is set to direct a film produced by the bombastic Sam Raimi (Spiderman 1 – 3, Drag Me To Hell, the Evil Dead trilogy). The pair are lined up to work together on an adaptation of the leftfield comic Wilson.

Okay, so it’s not entirely accurate. According to Deadline, Payne is interested in the project that will be produced by Raimi’s company Stars Road. But it’s still an exciting line-up, especially since Payne hasn’t released a feature film since 2004′s Sideways (his next film, The Descendants, should see a release late next year).

Wilson is a comic book following the eponymous character as he tries to find human connections despite being an overt misanthrope. There are similarities to the late Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor comics, which became the brilliant American Splendor movie in 2003. Wilson was written by Daniel Clowes, who is also adapting the script. Clowes also adapted his own Ghost World into a script which became the effective film in 2001, and also Art School Confidential.