Though not as big a hit as Myrin in 2006, Brúðguminn will certainly rank with 2008's most-visited Icelandic films, with over 50,000 people having seen the film in theatres, which amounts to over 16% of the country's population. The €2 million adaptation was written by the director and actor Olafur Egill Egilsson, who co-stars. The film tells the story of Jon (Kormákur regular Hilmir Snær Guðnason), a burnt-out university teacher who tries to figure things out on a bright summer night on the island of Flatey, in the bay of Breiðafjörður in West Iceland. The film also stars Margrét Vilhjálmsdóttir (Blóðbönd / Thicker than Water) and Þröstur Leó Gunnarsson (Foreldrar / Parents).

Kormákur, who also directed Little Trip to Heaven with Forest Whitaker and Julia Stiles in 2005, had not worked as a film actor since starring in Sólveig Anspach's 2003 film Stormy Weather, but recently wrapped Óskar Jónasson's Reykjavik-Rotterdam, an Iceland-Netherlands co-production in which he stars alongside Dutch actor Victor Löw. The screenplay was written by popular Icelandic author Arnaldur Indriðason, who also wrote the bestselling novel on which Myrin was based.

In Reykjavik-Rotterdam Kormákur plays Kristofer, a security guard who used to be a sailor before ending up in jail on contraband charges. Out of jail and eternally in need of money, he accepts an offer to work on a cargo ship that will sail from Reykjavik to Rotterdam. On the ship he encounters several old friends, though apparently not all can be trusted. Löw 

Reykjavik-Rotterdam should be ready for a premiere in early 2009.

(photo: Kormákur in Reykjavik-Rotterdam, (c) Blueeyes Productions)