Icelandic actor and director Bjarni Haukur Þórsson has signed a publishing deal with Random House, the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world, to write a book based on his monologue Pabbinn (“The Dad”).

Bjarni Haukur in his role as Pabbinn. Poster from midi.is.

“The offer from Random House was of the kind that you couldn’t refuse. It is a very good deal,” Bjarni Haukur stressed to Fréttablaðið. “It will hopefully be a very funny book about fatherhood and everything that comes with it.”

“I have sensed through the interest in the play that there is immense interest in the position of men as upbringers and fathers, single or not,” he added.

Pabbinn was seen by approximately 30,000 people in Iceland before it traveled to Germany where it has been on stage over the past two years, attracting more than 1,000 viewers, as well as to more than 20 other countries.

A German movie based on the monologue with a screenplay by Bjarni Haukur and Ólafur Egilsson will start shooting later this year.

Bjarni Haukur is set to submit his book next summer. It will hit the German market first, probably at the end of 2012, and later appear in other countries. He said he was very flattered when Random House approached him with the publishing contract.

iceland