Wow! This is a really phenomenal cast and with Ron Howard at the helm (sorry, we’re full of maritime puns) this could really be something special.
Production is now underway in the UK on the action adventure “Heart of the Sea.” Oscar® winner Ron Howard directs from a script by Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver (“Rise of the Planet of the Apes”) and Charles Leavitt, based on Nathaniel Philbrick’s best-selling novel about the dramatic true journey of the whaling ship Essex.
“Heart of the Sea” stars Chris Hemsworth as the vessel’s veteran first mate Owen Chase; Benjamin Walker as its inexperienced Captain, George Pollard; Cillian Murphy as second mate Matthew Joy; and Ben Whishaw as novelist Herman Melville, whose inquiries into the event 30 years later helped bring the story to light.
The film also stars Tom Holland (“The Impossible”) as young seaman Tom Nickerson, and Brendan Gleeson (“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1”) as the same man, 30 years later. Spanish actor Jordi Mollà (“Riddick”) is the captain of another ship, the Archimedes, who tries to warn the Essex of what may lie ahead.
The official synopsis goes as follows…
In the winter of 1820, the New England whaling ship Essex was assaulted by something no one could believe: a whale of mammoth size and will, and an almost human sense of vengeance. The real-life maritime disaster would inspire Melville’s Moby-Dick. But that told only half the story. “Heart of the Sea” reveals the encounter’s harrowing aftermath, as the ship’s surviving crew is pushed to their limits and forced to do the unthinkable to stay alive. Braving storms, starvation, panic and despair, the men will call into question their deepest beliefs, from the value of their lives to the morality of their trade, as their captain searches for direction on the open sea and his first mate still seeks to bring the great whale down.
