Longtime comedian and award season breakout star Patton Oswalt is enjoying something of a higher profile in Hollywood following a tremendous role opposite Charlize Theron in Jason Reitman’s divisive dark comedy “Young Adult.” And what comes with a higher profile? Higher profile roles, of course! Variety reports Oswalt has joined the cast of Ben Stiller’s remake of “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, also starring Kristen Wiig, who had something of a breakout year herself after co-writing and starring in “Bridesmaids.”

Stiller is directing and also starring in the remake of the 1974 comedy, which was based on a 1939 short story that appeared in The New Yorker. Stiller plays the title character, a timid LIFE Magazine employee who develops pictures of other people having adventures. When an important negative goes missing, he gets to play hero and maybe get the girl (Wiig). Oswalt plays Todd, an eHarmony counselor who helps Mitty set up a dating profile and Shirley MacLaine is also on board as Mitty’s mom. Filming begins in April.

Oswalt, a longtime series regular on Kevin James sitcom “The King of Queens”, came close to Oscar this year when he played the sarcastic foil to Theron’s hot mess in “Young Adult” (he was just honored for that performance with a Virtuosos Award last weekend at the Santa Barbara Film Festival). He can be seen opposite Steve Carell and Keira Knightley in this summer’s apocalyptic comedy “Seeking a Friend at the End of the World” and with Anton Yelchin and Willem Defoe in “Odd Thomas.”