Hollywood stars Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston are joining forces for 20th Century Fox’s upcoming comedy “Marley & Me,” the studio announced this week.

This is the first time the 39-year-old actor returns to a film set since his reported suicide attempt last summer. Twentieth Century Fox said Monday that Wilson and Jennifer Aniston would start filming on March 10 and continue to mid-May.

Wilson will star as a journalist who, together with his wife (Aniston), adopts a mischievous dog. The couple names the pup Marley and soon discovers that their canine friend is no puppet on a string.

The film is based on Josh Groban’s bestselling autobiographical book “Marley and Me,” published in 2005. It has been scheduled for a Christmas Day release. David Frankel (“The Devil Wears Prada”) will be directing.

Alan Arkin co-stars.

“I'm thrilled they're starting production on this. It's been a long time coming and I really couldn't be happier on that,” author John Grogan told People magazine. “I read the script and I like it. I think it's really true to the book.”

Grogan also expressed his content with the casting. “I'm actually really thrilled to have Owen Wilson portray me. We don't look anything alike but I think his personality will be a great fit to my own,” he told the magazine. “And my wife, Jenny, is thrilled with being played by Jennifer Anniston and so am I. What's not to like, right?”

Owen Wilson has been leading a somewhat quiet and sheltered life after being released from Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in August. Last summer, he dropped out of “Tropic Thunder,” a film directed by and co-starring friend and collaborator Ben Stiller. Matthew McConaughey replaced Wilson in “Tropic Thunder.”

His first public appearance occurred in October, at the Los Angeles premiere of Wes Anderson’s “Darjeeling Limited,” in which he starred alongside Adrien Brody and brother Luke Wilson.