MUMBAI: Justin Timberlake is the latest star to join the cast of the new Mike Myers’ comedy The Love Guru in which he essays his first original character since Austin Powers. The Paramount Pictures production is co-financed by Spgylass Entertainment and will be distributed by Paramount worldwide.

Timberlake who was part of the voice ensemble led by Myers in the blockbuster summer hit Shrek the Third will play Jacques Grande, a professional hockey player in The Love Guru, alongside the previously announced Jessica Alba, Romany Malco and Verne Troyer.

The film is directed by Marco Schnabel, who served as second unit director on Austin Powers in Goldmember and Meet the Parents. The screenwriters are Myers and Graham Gordy. The producers are Myers and Michael De Luca. Donald J. Lee, Jr., Roger Birnbaum and Gary Barber are the executive producers.

In the comedy, The Love Guru, Pitka is an American who was left at the gates of an ashram in India as a child and raised by gurus. He moves back to the US to seek fame and fortune in the world of self-help and spirituality. His unorthodox methods are put to the test when he must settle a rift between Toronto Maple Leafs star hockey player Darren Roanoke and his estranged wife. After the split, Roanoke’s wife starts dating L.A. Kings star Jacques Grande out of revenge, sending her husband into a major professional skid — to the horror of the teams’ owner Jane Bullard and Coach Cherkov. Pitka must return the couple to marital nirvana and get Roanoke back on his game so the team can break the 40-year-old “Bullard Curse” and win the Stanley Cup.