KATMANDU: Hollywood actors Jake Gyllenhaal and Josh Brolin have arrived in Nepal to shoot a new film based on the Everest bestseller “Into Thin Air,” a government official said Monday.

Brolin and Gyllenhaal, who are staying at a five-star hotel in Katmandu, will play the lead roles in the film, named “Everest,” which will focus on an ill-fated attempt to scale the world’s tallest mountain in 1996.

Iceland’s Baltasar Kormakur is directing the film, which tells the story of how eight climbers lost their lives when a rogue storm struck the mountain.

“A local agent applied for permission on behalf of Baltasar Kormakur to shoot ‘Everest’ and received the permission three days ago,” communications ministry official Umakant Parajuli told AFP.

Parajuli said the team was permitted to shoot in the Himalayan nation for two weeks.

He declined to comment on whether the shoot would include a stint on the famed peak this month, when temperatures are expected to be at their lowest level annually.

British newspaper The Guardian reported last week that Gyllenhaal would play Scott Fisher, a US expedition leader who died in the disaster while Brolin will play Beck Weathers, an American doctor who survived the storm.