Cannes 2012: Simon Pegg Signs Up to Find 'Happiness'

Simon Pegg, one of a handful of British go-to comedic screen stars, will lead Peter Chelsom's dramady Hector and the Search for Happiness.

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Pegg will star in the movie adapted for the screen by Chelsom and Tinker Lindsay from the bestselling novel of the same name by François Lelord.

It details the story of an eccentric yet irresistible London psychiatrist in crisis -- largely because his patients are just not getting any happier -- who decides to go on his own quest to find a smile.

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The project is being introduced to buyers strolling the Croisette by Lisa Wilson and Myles Nestel, founders and co-partners of The Solution Entertainment Group for worldwide sales.

The project is set up as a German/Canadian co-production produced by Egoli Tossell Film and Screen Siren Pictures and is currently in pre-production.

Producers aim to begin the shoot as soon as Pegg is done with his work in The World's End, directed by previous Pegg collaborator Edgar Wright and co-starring his British compadre Nick Frost. Pegg is currently in post-production on the next Star Trek movie.

Chelsom said: "I've been searching long and hard for a film that would bring me back to my European sensibilities. Not unlike Being There and Forrest Gump, Hector  is a contemporary love story, a fable wrapped around a very human hero's journey. Nobody does the innocent abroad better than Simon Pegg: he is not only a brilliant comedian but a very touching actor. He is the Hector that you want to follow to the ends of the earth."