Before Severance, Ben Stiller & Adam Scott Made This $188M Comedy Gem Together
This is the first project showing Ben Stiller's talent beyond comedy.
Each episode of Severance is a brilliantly constructed thriller with excellent visuals. Half of the episodes were directed by Ben Stiller, a former comedy actor. No one expected him to deliver the biggest sci-fi hit of the 2020s.
But Severance is not the first Stiller project that showed the audience a completely different side of the actor-director. And it is not even the first project in which he worked with Adam Scott, who played the main role in the series.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Showed Ben Stiller Is More Than Just a Comedy Actor
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is the movie that in 2013 showed us the face of the real Ben Stiller – a romantic and a big dreamer, who for a long time hid behind the mask of a typical Hollywood comedian.
When critics had already placed him somewhere between Jim Carrey and Rob Schneider, Stiller released a completely atypical directorial project – still funny, but ethereally light and ironic.
What Is The Secret Life of Walter Mitty About?
Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller) works in the negative department of a once-popular magazine that is about to close. His life is boring and measured, and he often escapes into a fantasy world where he sees himself as a superhero.
When the famous travel photographer Sean sends the magazine a new set of negatives and recommends that the 25th image be placed on the cover, Mitty discovers that the 25th image is missing.
With his boss (Adam Scott) demanding that the negative be sent to the layout department as soon as possible, Walter sets out to find Sean – first to Greenland and Iceland, then to Nepal and Afghanistan.
The Movie Is Heartfelt and Warm Thanks to Ben Stiller's Direction
The idea of a film adaptation of James Thurber's 1939 short story of the same name was born in the mid-1990s and almost ended up at Walt Disney Pictures.
The project was passed from screenwriter to screenwriter, as it was very difficult to transfer the plot to our time without storyline losses.
In 2003, Steven Spielberg himself was going to direct the movie, but thanks to Stiller's direction, the film version of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty turned out to be incredibly soulful.
Just Like Severance, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Has Striking Visuals
The visuals of the movie are excellent – especially in the scenes of Mitty's fantasies and adventures.
When the man skates along an Icelandic highway, smashes New York ground, fights a supervillain boss or climbs the Himalayas, it is so beautiful that it is immediately clear – the impressive visuals of Severance are no coincidence.