Developing French uber-hit "Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis," Gallic Jacques of all trades Dany Boon just wrote for a year from the heart: about his homeland, France's rainswept northern mining region of Nord-Cap de Calais.

"It's a love letter to my childhood. In France, comedies are always shot in southern France. Dramas, where terrible things happen, always take place in my region," Boon says.

"It was really important for me to make a comedy in northern France with a lot of tenderness, showing the real face of my people."

The result, "Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis," which he also directed and co-stars in, is on track to become the biggest domestic grosser in French history, taking 12.6 million admissions and $117.4 million through March 18. Those figures underscore France's love affair with its own national cinema.

They also reflect Boon's popular comedy instincts, honed during years as a stand-up comic.

"Ch'tis" plays like a vintage British Ealing comedy crossed with a French farce.

Philippe Abrams (Kad Merad), a post office manager in sunny Provence, is dispatched in disgrace to the dreaded Nord-Pas de Calais.

Wrapped in his ski clothes, doted on by an admiring wife, Abram's departure and first night north reprises French prejudices about Nord-Pas as an Arctic-temperature wasteland, populated by beer-guzzling, brawling bores who eat stinky fromage and speak an unintelligible Ch'tis dialect.

Naturally, Abrams' stay up north soon explodes these myths.

Boon's childhood, when he spoke the local dialect Ch'tis, full of Latin holdovers, has influenced his work.

He has a physique for comedy -- flap-up ears, a rough-hewn cubic head -- and gained an early taste for laffers.

Film influences include another hugely popular Gallic comedic hyphenate, Gerard Oury, whose "La Grand vadrouille" (1966), France's box office champ, took 17 million admissions.

In 2003, a Boon one-man show, delivered in the Ch'tis language, sold 600,000 DVDs, subtitled into French.

His feature debut, "Dream House," sold 1.5 million tickets.

But "Ch'tis" success "surprised" and "slightly scared" him.

Why the Danny Boon boom?� "It's funny. The story's simple and human," Boon says.�

He thinks it must have touched a national nerve.

"I came from a humble family. My father was a boxer and truck driver. But I was very happy. Like other countries, French people are scared about globalization. My region's very welcoming, though quite poor. In a capitalist society, people forget to be happy with what they've got."

Pic opens L.A.'s City of Light, City of Angels film fest April 14. Boon's already been courted by the U.S., including for a possible remake. That likely won't happen soon, as Boon will return to acting for several upcoming projects.

"To develop a quality comedy, you need time," says Boon, something he hasn't got right now.

As an actor, he'll co-star opposite� Sophie Marceau in romantic comedy "The Other Side of the Bed," then topline Jean-Pierre Jeunet's gun trade caper, "Micmacs de tire-larigot."