Nia Vardalos has her Valentine

When your biggest hit revolves around the complications of finding true love, you’d be forgiven for trying to cut another tasty slice of that successful pie.

So it is with Nia Vardalos, who helped bring the world My Big Fat Greek Wedding and has now written the romantic comedy I Hate Valentine’s Day. She’s also bagged the lead role of a woman who lives by a strict series of dating rules but finds them challenged when she falls in love with a British bloke who dumps her.

And the man doing the dumping is Vanity Fair’s James Purefoy, who Vardalos seems quite smitten with in real life. "He's mischievous and dirty on the phone, so he's a joy to write for," Vardalos blabbed to The Hollywood Reporter. "The part was written for an American guy in mind, but I'm now revamping the script to make it about a British guy who doesn't understand the ways of American women."

According to the scribe/actress, she wanted to write a "a movie for everybody, whether you're in a relationship or not, and how Valentine's Day puts so much pressure on us to be romantic. And the last two things that go hand in hand are ‘have to’ and ‘be romantic now.’

The man drafted in to call the shots is Little Black Book’s Nick Hurran, who’ll kick things off this July in Canada.