Will Ferrell is set to headline the true story of six middle aged men who mount an expedition to the North Pole
Sony Pictures is developing a new feature film based on the true story of six middle-aged men who decide to mount an expedition to the North Pole. Deadline has the news, reporting that Will Ferrell is set to headline the untitled project, based on a recent article by Guy Lawson, published last month in the pages of The New York Times Magazine. Titled “An Insurance Salesman and a Doctor Walk Into a Bar, and End Up at the North Pole: The Story of an Accidentally Pioneering Expedition,” the article explores a 1968 expedition led by insurance salesman Ralph Plaisted. He and his team managed to become the first undisputed individuals to make it to the North Pole by surface travel.
“His six-man second try, which included a lawyer, a schoolteacher, a doctor and a movie cameraman, relied on four 16-horsepower Bombardier Ski-Doo snowmobiles,” reads The Washington Post’s 2008 obituary for Plaisted. “The 40-year-old adventurer had backing from 50 companies, which donated $132,000, as well as $70,000 worth of equipment, including synthetic outfits based on Eskimo designs.”
Although no writer or director is, as of yet, attached to the project, it’s easy to see how the everyman adventure will translate well to the big screen.
“Traveling through the twilight of the late arctic winter, the men encountered frozen fiords as well as daunting ice ridges more than 40 feet high,” continues the obituary. “Often they had to shove their 250-pound snowmobiles up and over steep inclines by hand. At times, men and machines fell through the ice. Once, they were confined to their tents for six days, waiting out an arctic storm…. Their biggest challenge, aside from the cold, was crossing gaps in the restless ice, sometimes eight to 10 feet wide over water as deep as two miles. They got across by gunning their snowmobiles and soaring like arctic Evil Knievels.”
Will Ferrel is, of course, no stranger to the North Pole having famously played North Pole resident Buddy the Elf in Jon Favreau‘s modern Christmas classic, Elf. Check back for updates on this new project as they become available.
(Photo Credit: Ana Maria Wiggins / WENN.com)
