Gísli Örn Garðarsson cast in the Prince of Persia film

Now I know this is not the type of news we usually carry but since it involves an Icelandic actor I thought I'd might post it.

A couple of weeks ago news trickled through the grapevine that Icelandic actor Gísli Örn Garðarsson had been cast as the main villain in the Jerry Bruckheimer produced action adventure film Prince of Persia, based on the popular computer game franchise of the same name. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Gemma Arterton, Alfred Molina and Ben Kingsley among others and will be directed by Mike Newell. The film is an high action and adventure film based in the Middle East and follows the adventures of Prince Dastan and his fight against Hassasin who Gísli Örn will play. It was funny how the media wrote about this news over here claiming that this part was the biggest part for an Icelander in a film ever. I assume they meant a Hollywood film of this scale but they failed to mention Anita Briem's role in the upcoming 3D adventure film Journey To The Center Of The Earth starring Brendan Fraser. Briem was also the lead actor in the Spanish produced horror film The Nun back in the day.
Gísli Örn might be familiar to some over here as one of the leads in the Icelandic drama "Börn" that premiered over here a couple of years ago and has been touring the festival circuit with great success. He is also the front man for the theater group Vesturport that have been doing great things with innovative theater productions all over the world, like the acrobatic version of Romeo and Juliet. Right now they are touring with a stage version of Lukas Moodyson's "Tillsammans" that starred Gael Garcia Bernal for the first run in Iceland and Mexico.
Vesturport is also busy finishing their third feature film, called "Brim" (Undercurrent) based on their play which will premier later this year and will be scored by none other than Nick Cave.