James Franco is in early negotiations to star in Fox’s comedy “Why Him?”

A pair of Fox-based production companies — Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps and Ben Stiller’s Red Hour — are producing, according to Variety.

John Hamburg is attached to direct from a script he co-wrote with Nicholas Stoller and Ian Helfer.

The story centers on a Midwestern father who takes his family to visit his daughter — who is attending Stanford — at Christmas and subsequently gets into a competition with his daughter’s boyfriend, a young Internet billionaire.

Franco most recently starred in Sony’s satire “The Interview” with Seth Rogen. He’s completed work on “Queen of the Desert,” which premiered at Berlin, “True Story” and “The Adderall Diaries,” and will star in Hulu’s adaptation of Stephen King’s “11/22/63.”

Hamburg directed and wrote “I Love You, Man” and “Along Came Polly.” Stoller directed “Neighbors.”