Watch: ‘Walter Mitty’ Has a Fantastic ‘Secret Life’

I’ve been waiting to share this with all of you wonderful readers since Saturday, and now I finally can, as it has been posted online. Without further ado, I present to you the first trailer for Ben Stiller’s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty trailer was certainly unexpected in front of The Wolverine; I didn’t even know it was going to be attached, much like the other out-of-place trailers, like Mortal Instruments: City of Bones and Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters. Knowing very little about the original 1947 film starring Danny Kaye (apart from the song and dance numbers) and being slightly familiar with the short story, I can safely say that this new adaptation/re-make, while seeming to take a page out of Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (among other films mentioned in relation to this film), looks to be very promising, as it weaves between Mitty’s reality and daydreams. The locales are certainly out of the ordinary (Iceland and Eurasia, judging from the trailer and IMDB) and Stiller’s calmer, more sedate antics bode well for the film. Also, the underlying music (“Dirty Paws” by the fabulous Of Monsters and Men) helps carry the trailer and perhaps at a more serious Ben Stiller film, despite the imagination aspect.

Based on the James Thurber short story and adapted by Steve Conrad (The Weather Man, The Pursuit of Happyness), the film stars Ben Stiller as the title character, Walter Mitty, an average (maybe even boring) employee of LIFE magazine with an overactive daydreaming imagination that leads him on his own thrilling adventure and takes him out of his safe haven. Also in the cast are Kristen Wiig as Cheryl, a love interest, and a beardy Adam Scott as a co-worker. Sean Penn also appears in a photograph, but he could have a much larger role, but that is yet to be seen. Shirley MacLaine and Patton Oswalt also round out the cast. It is set for a Christmas Day release later this year.

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