Ben Stiller in final talks to remake ‘Walter Mitty’

[HMG Celebrity News] – When your plan to remake a movie has been rejected by six actors and four directors you’d usually realize it’s an awful idea. Not Ben Stiller. He wants to ruin remake the Danny Kaye classic ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty’ and it’s now going to happen.

Made in 1947 the film is about a minor editor for a publishing firm who gets constantly picked on by everyone around him. He engages in endless daydreams as a means of escape and this often gets him in trouble.

And the story of the remake is a book on its own – It started in 1994 with Jim Carrey set to be Walter and Ron Howard due to direct. That fell apart a year later. In 2001 the film moved to from MGM to Paramount, then to DreamWorks…who bailed out in 2004.

In 2005 Carrey left and Owen Wilson was hired…then Mike Myers, Will Ferrrell, Mike Myers and finally Sacha Baren Cohen.

Today is Ben Stiller’s turn to be Walter – but it’s early yet.

The film is now housed at 20th Century Fox and Ben got on-board when they hired Steven Conrad, who wrote Will Smith’s 2006 hit ‘The Pursuit of Happyness.’ They still have no director, but now Ben’s involved it’s believed Fox will soon fix that before their option on the movie expires.

Shooting is [currently] due to start in the fall, but they still need a female lead. Scarlett Johansson was briefly involved in talks for that part but she walked away, and so far they’re not even in casting.

If you’ve seen the movie do you think Ben can make this work? And who would you cast as Walter’s fiancée?

Source: Deadline