More casting is being announced out of the Cannes Film Festival today as sales and financing company The Solution Entertainment Group has announced that British comic actor Simon Pegg has been cast in the lead role of Peter Chelsom’s dramatic comedy Hector and the Search for Happiness.
Based on the bestselling novel by François Lelord and adapted by Chelsom with Tinker Lindsay, Pegg will play Hector, “an eccentric yet irresistible London psychiatrist in crisis” because his patients are getting happier.
The official plot synopsis from the press release goes on to say, “Hes going nowhere. Then one day, armed with buckets of courage and an almost child-like curiosity, Hector breaks out of his sheltered vacuum of a life into a global quest to find out if happiness exists. More importantly, if it exists for Hector. And so begins a colorful, exotic, dangerous and hysterical journey.”
Pegg is best known for his movies with Edgar Wright, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, the third of that trilogy The World’s End which they plan on shooting later this year. (Pegg will shoot “Hector” once that’s finished filming.) More recently, Pegg has starred in a number of successful studio franchises including J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek and the recent Tom Cruise action blockbuster Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.
British filmmaker Peter Chelsom previously directed the romantic remake Shall We Dance? starring Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez, following the British films Funny Bones and Hear My Song and the drama Serendipity, starring John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale. He last directed Hannah Montana: The Movie, but for his return to European films, he will reteam with costume designer Lindy Hemming (The Dark Knight Rises, Casino Royale) for their third movie together.
On the new project, Chelsom stated, “Ive 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 heros 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.”
The German/Canadian co-production by Egoli Tossell Film, currently involved with Ron Howard’s Rush, and Vancouver’s Screen Siren Pictures is in pre-production.
(Photo source: WENN.com)
