Sally Hawkins and Catherine Keener have been cast in FX's Charlie Kaufman How and Why pilot.

Variety reports that if the pilot gets picked up for a series, Keener will guest star and Hawkins will be a series regular.

The comedy pilot is about a man who has no problems explaining how a nuclear reactor works, but is fairly clueless in the rest of his life.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show will follow Goodman Hesselman, played by John Hawkes, about the host of a TV show, also called How & Why, who gets replaced after burning out. He moves to a new town to host a similar program, but one that lacks the same prestige.

Michael Cera has been cast as his boss at the new show. Hawkins will play Hawkes' wife Yvonne and the mother of triplets. Their marriage is suffering because of the big changes to their life. Keener will play Alice, but nothing more has been revealed about her character yet.

Keener has worked with Kaufman, who wrote and will direct the pilot, before on Adaptation, Being John Malkovich and Synechdoche, New York. Hawkins hasn't worked with Kaufman before and this is her first series regular role.

The single-camera half-hour comedy is being executive produced by Kaufman and Anthony Bregman.

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