Four years after his well-deserved Oscar nomination for playing disgraced President Richard Nixon in Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon, Frank Langella continues to acquire offbeat, interesting acting challenges. Coming off solid reviews for his turn in the Sundance drama Robot and Frank, Langella has signed on for first-time writer-director Nenad Cicin-Sain’s The Time Being, Deadline reports.

In the independent drama, Langella’s set to play Warner Dax, an eccentric millionaire in his final weeks of living who hires a talented but struggling artist named Daniel (Wes Bentley) to complete a series of strange art projects. But as the assignment proceeds, Daniel’s unsure whether Warner’s interested in helping him further his career, or if he has set in amotion an elaborate ruse that could bring his personal and professional life to an end.

Sarah Paulson (Martha, Marcy, May Marlene), Ahna O’Reilly (The Help) and Corey Stoll (Woody Allen’s Midnight In Paris) have boarded The Time Being, which will begin filming soon and could attempt a 2012 release if production goes smoothly.

Until then, Langella will be able to be seen in director Jake Schreier’s Robot and Frank, an odd “buddy” comedy from screenwriter Christopher D. Ford about a retired jewel thief and the relationship he forms with his robot caretaker. Sony Pictures Classics nabbed the distribution rights to Frank at Sundance, paying somewhere north of $2 million, so expect to see the film in theaters later this year.