Norwegian shipowner Hurtigruten has hit on a handy way of bringing in extra revenue during a pandemic that has blown away cruiseship companies' business model.
The cruise and ferry outfit has managed to hire out two of its vessels to Hollywood megastar Tom Cruise.
The 58-year-old Top Gun actor has booked the 6,300-gt Vesteralen (built 1983) and 21,800-gt Fridtjof Nansen (built 2019) to help complete filming of Mission Impossible 7 in Norway.
Norway Today reported that Fridtjof Nansen is acting as a hotel ship for 400 members of a the film's crew off the village of Hellesylt.
The use of the Vesteralen was not made clear. There has been speculation it could feature in the blockbuster itself.
Work on the film was halted in February due to Covid-19.
Hurtigruten has confirmed the hire, but would not say whether Cruise himself was staying on board.
Cruise comes up with cash
The actual charterer is production company Truenorth.
But the Sun newspaper reported that Cruise himself picked up the tab for August and September, which came in at £500,000 ($663,000).
Let's hope Hurtigruten's executives got to say: "Show me the money".
The Norwegian company has restarted operations in a limited fashion following lockdown.
The Fridtjof Nansen had been scheduled to carry out a few voyages around Iceland and the European Atlantic coast, but they were cancelled.
