Today’s latest casting news:

• Jim Sturgess (Could Atlas) is set to star opposite Kate Beckinsale in the psychological thriller Eliza Graves, directed by Brad Anderson (The Call).

• Toni Collette (Fright Night) and Jean Reno (Alex Cross) join Hector and the Search for Happiness, a romantic comedy directed by Peter Chelsom.

Hit the jump for more on both casting stories.

Rosamund Pike and Christopher Plummer have been added to the cast of director Peter Chelsom’s drama/comedy Hector and the Search for Happiness.  Based on the book of the same name by François Lelord, the film stars Simon Pegg as the titular Hector, an eccentric psychiatrist who’s going nowhere and whose patients aren’t getting any happier.  One day, he musters up the courage to set out on a quest to find out if happiness really exists.  It was announced today that Pike will play Hector’s long-time girlfriend, while Plummer is set as Professor Coreman, the leading guru for Happiness Studies at UCLA.

Pegg and Pike are actually set to first team up in Edgar Wright’s comedy The World’s End, which reunites the Shaun of the Dead/Hot Fuzz team of Wright, Pegg, and Nick Frost.  Production on Hector and the Search for Happiness will begin in January, once Pegg and Pike have wrapped World’s End.  Hit the jump to read the full press release.

After wrapping his shoot on the Untitled Star Trek Sequel and preparing for The World’s End with Nick Frost (Paul) and Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz), Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead) will topline Hector and the Search for Happiness for director Peter Chelsom (Serendipity).  The dramatic comedy is an adaptation by Chelsom and Tinker Lindsay of the best-selling Francois Lelord novel.  Hector and the Search for Happiness is currently in pre-production with plans to start once Pegg finishes The World’s End this fall.  Hit the jump for the synopsis and more.