Zooey Deschanel. (QMI Agency file photo)

LOS ANGELES - Zooey Deschanel and Rashida Jones will play lovers in "My Idiot Brother," a comedy also starring Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks and Emily Mortimer.

The project centers on an idealist (Rudd) dealing with his overbearing mother who crashes at the homes of his three ambitious sisters and brings truth, happiness and a sunny disposition into their lives while also wreaking havoc.

Banks, Deschanel and Mortimer will play the sisters. Banks is a career-driven single about to get her big break in journalism after spending years writing about accessories at a fashion magazine; Deschanel is a bisexual whose flakiness and lies are getting in the way of moving forward with her caring, responsible girlfriend (Jones); and Mortimer plays a Park Slope mom too worried about having the perfect life and children to notice that her marriage is falling apart.

Jesse Peretz will direct from a script by Evgenia Peretz and David Schisgall. Shooting is slated to begin in New York next month.

Deschanel most recently starred in "(500) Days of Summer," while Jones co-stars on NBC's "Parks and Recreation." Banks appeared on NBC's "30 Rock," Mortimer in "Shutter Island," and Rudd in "I Love You, Man."