American actor, director and producer Ben Stiller is preparing the remake of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty from 1947 in Iceland. He is planning to both direct the film and play the lead.

From Stykkishólmur, one of the places Stiller visited. Photo by Páll Stefánsson.

According to Fréttabladid’s sources, the screenplay was written by Steven Conrad with that in mind; that the film partially takes place in Iceland.

This is considered a great promotion opportunity because when Iceland has been used as a shooting location for international projects in the past, it has often been done without featuring Iceland as an actual setting in the script.

Stiller came to Iceland on Wednesday last week to scout possible locations for shooting. He was seen having a macchiato at Café Babalú in central Reykjavík, among other places.

The Icelandic production company True North is assisting Stiller with his project but the company’s managing director, Helga Margrét Reykdal, would neither comment on Stiller’s presence in Iceland nor the company’s participation in the project.

However, the actor has been spotted by fans around the country, with whom he has happily posed, and he has also reported on his journey on his Twitter site.

Yesterday, he wrote: “Just back. Iceland is beautiful. Nice people! I just kept saying ‘amazing’ after every fjord. Finally switched to ‘awesome’.” Among the places he visited was Stykkishólmur in the west, visir.is reports.

ESA