Watch a Globe-Hopping Simon Pegg in Trailer for 'Hector and the Search for Happiness'

In last year's The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Ben Stiller played a regular guy living a boring life who sought freedom and new experiences by traveling the globe. The film was originally seen as an Oscar contender but ultimately kind of vanished without making much of a mark. Now a very similar film led by Simon Pegg is on the way in Hector and the Search for Happiness, and the jury is out whether it can succeed where 'Mitty' may have failed.

A new U.K. trailer for it has been released and it's the rare chance to see Pegg in a lead role all by himself. Normally he's got his partner-in-crime Nick Frost by his side, or he's part of a larger ensemble, but now Pegg is being asked to carry all of the emotional burden. He plays the titular Hector, a psychologist who, despite a lovely wife (Rosamund Pike) and successful practice, feels dissatisfied with life. And so he sets out on a journey around the world to investigate if true happiness really exists, along the way meeting a diverse array of characters played by Toni Collette, Jean Reno, Christopher Plummer, and Stellan Skarsgard. This is also the first film directed by Peter Chelsom since 2009's Hannah Montana: The Movie.

Hector and the Search for Happiness opens September 19th, and that fall date suggests somebody has fairly high aspirations for the film.