Larry David, co-creator of the hit sitcom “Seinfeld” and creator-star of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” has been slated to play the grouchy, misanthropic Boris Yellnikoff — a retired, divorced physicist and self-proclaimed genius in Woody Allen’s new film, “Whatever Works.”

In a recent interview about the project, David said, “The script came in the mail and I opened it up and saw the character was on page one. I went to page 50, he’s on page 50. I turned to the end, he’s at the end. I went, `Oh my God. What is this?’ I realized what it was.”

Allen wrote the script back in the 1970s with Zero Mostel in mind, but when the Tony-winning actor died in 1977, the screenplay was tucked away until the promise of an actor’s strike last summer provoked Allen into looking for a project that he could get under way quickly.

Although it’s David first notable foray into movies, it won’t be the first time he’s worked with Allen having had two small roles in “Radio Days” and “New York Stories.”

In an interview Allen spoke of David saying, “He’s my kind of an actor. He’s just a natural actor. He doesn’t do anything on the screen or in the scene that he wouldn’t do in real life. He doesn’t give you any false emotions or suddenly launch into dramatic or actor’s mode,” and he continued, “He was always kvetching that he couldn’t act,” Allen says. “So I felt, look, the guy’s going to be funny. He’s always funny — I don’t have to worry about that. … As it turned out, the dramatic scenes were the ones he had the least amount of problem with. First takes, he’d do the dramatic scenes seemingly effortlessly. He agonized much more over the jokes.”

The film will also star Evan Rachel Wood as a young runaway who begs him for shelter causing Boris’ life to slowly change.