James Van Der Beek is negotiations to join the cast of Labor Day, Jason Reitman’s latest project.

Reitman wrote the script adapting the Joyce Maynard novel and is directing the Paramount feature, which already has Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin on board to star.

The drama centers on a boy  and his reclusive divorces mother (Winslet) who, during a Labor Day Weekend, who meeta stranger and offer him a ride. The man turns out to be an escaped convict and ends up teaching the boy life lessons.

Van Der Beek will play a police officer investigating a missing person’s case.

Indian Paintbrush is producing and co-financing. Also producing is Mr. Mudd Productions and Reitman’s Right of Way Films.

Van Der Beek just returned to TV,  playing one of the key cast members of ABC’s Don’t Trust the B— in Apartment 23. Last fall, he participated in a live reading of The Breakfast Club that Reitman directed as part of a program for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Van De Beek is repped by Paradigm and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.

Paramount had no comment.