Frank Beddor, one of the producers of There's Something About Mary, has sold the comic novel The Full Catastrophe by David Carkeet to Steve Reuther's Bel-Air Entertainment.

Bel-Air, which is co-financed by Warner Bros and StudioCanal, will co-produce with Beddor's Automatic Pictures. Bel-Air senior vice president Keri Selig who brought the project to the company will oversee its development alongside Heather Courtney.

The book, which will be adapted by Harris Goldberg, screenwriter of Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, is the story of a failed romantic who assumes his brother's identity as a renowned psychiatrist so he can be hired as an on-site marriage counsellor, but his inept theories on love drive the couple he is counselling to the brink of divorce.

The Gersh Agency's Richard Arlook represented Harris Goldberg in the deal, literary agent Barney Karpfinger represented Carkeet; Philip Elway and Ann Du Val handled negotiations for Bel-Air, while attorney Steven J Goldfisher represented Beddor and Automatic.

Beddor recently sold comedy pitch The Season by Aasaf Ainapore to UK National Lottery studio franchise Pathe Pictures and is also co-developing with Pathe a film version of James Hawes' hit novel White Merc With Fins.