Ben Stiller is in talks to take the lead role in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty , according to a report by Deadline.
Over the years, the remake of the 1947 film has attracted actors like Jim Carrey and Will Ferrell, and directors including Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard, with Sacha Baron Cohen the most recent name to be attached to the project.
Apparently The Pursuit of Happyness writer Steve Conrad took a new approach to the script which convinced Stiller to make it his next movie, and now Fox are looking for a suitable director for the project.
The original film was based on a short story by James Thurber, in which the title character frequently escapes the pressures of every day life by drifting off into vivid daydreams that are inspired by the fiction he reads at his publishing company.
Sounds like it could be an opportunity for Stiller to fuse the big-budget antics of Night at the Museum with the neurotic tics of the likes of Greenberg .
With Stiller attached, expect Walter Mitty to speed into production imminently.
