Iceman the movie: stone age survivor Ötzi is brought back to life

The world's oldest mummy has been a boon to scientists, the Tyrolean tourist trade and now to filmmakers

No corpse has ever been examined so thoroughly, attracted so many admirers, or spawned such an array of relics and souvenirs. The mummified Neolithic male known as i-tzi, whose shrivelled body was discovered with his tools and clothing in a glacier 26 years ago, is now set to experience a further wave of popularity with the release of a biopic offering a fictional account of his life.

i-tzi's remains were stumbled across by a German couple, Erika and Helmut Simon, during a summer hike in 1991 in the i-tztal Alps in southern Tyrol. So well preserved was the partially thawed body, the couple initially thought the corpse, nicknamed i-tzi after the valley where it was found, to be relatively new. But forensic tests soon established it to be around 5,300-years-old, making i-tzi the oldest known human mummy. The corpse's organs, even its skin - covered in 60 tattoos - were intact, making it a unique find and one of the most prized archaeological discoveries of all time.i-tzi has long since become a cause ci(C)libre in the scientific world, with thousands of specialists examining everything from the contents of his stomach to how he died.