Frank Oz will direct "Death at a Funeral," a farcical comedy written by Dean Craig and being produced by Sidney Kimmel Entertainment.

Matthew Macfadyen ("Pride & Prejudice"), Peter Dinklage ("The Station Agent") and Ewen Bremner ("Match Point") have been cast in the ensembler.

"Funeral" follows a dysfunctional British family as they gather to mourn the passing of their patriarch. But when a man threatens to expose the patriarch's secret unless he is paid a princely sum, the man's two sons try to do everything to keep the secret from leaking to the guests, and what should be a heartfelt good-bye turns into a calamity.

Oz, known for helming such big studio movies as "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" and "The Stepford Wives," said in an interview that he has been wanting to work in the low-budget realm for some time and says each world has its own stresses.

"In the low-budget world, there is more pressure on speed but less pressure on the amount of money, meaning when you don't have enough money, you have to shoot faster," Oz said. "When you do have a lot of money, you don't have to shoot as fast, but the pressure is being responsible for the tremendous amount of money at your disposal."

Sidney Kimmel, Share Stallings, Laurence Malkin and Diana Phillips are producing. Bill Horberg and Bruce Toll are executive producing for SKE. Andreas Grosch and Philip Elway will executive produce for VIP Medienfonds.

The project will be distributed domestically through MGM as part of SKE's nonexclusive distribution deal. SKE's Kimmel International will handle foreign sales and international distribution beginning at next month's Festival de Cannes.

APA repped Craig in the deal. He wrote "Caffeine," an upcoming comedy that stars Breckin Meyer, Mena Suvari and Katherine Heigl.

Oz is repped by CAA.