Paul Giamatti is working with Alexander Payne on a new project.

He’s going to star in The Holdovers, a film about three different people who form a Christmas family during snowy weeks in New England in the 1970s.

Giamatti, who worked with Payne on the brilliant Sideways, is playing a teacher who no-one likes. The other two characters are one of his students and the school cook.

Production on the film is expected to begin early next year.