Taken from author Nathaniel Philbrick's non-fiction book of the same name. The story revolves around a Nantucket whaling ship which was destroyed by a sperm whale in 1820. Only eight crew members were rescued alive, after being lost at sea for 90 days. The true event inspired Herman Melville (Ben Whishaw) to write his literary classic Moby-Dick.
Charles Leavitt wrote the original draft of the script, and Oscar-nominated industry screenwriter Peter Morgan ("The Queen) joined the pic to work extensively with director Ron Howard on redrafts.
Howard told THR that the reason for release delay comes down to marketing data:
"They analyzed the way people are responding to our movie now which is very favorable now that it’s finished, the way people responded to the marketing materials, and they also looked out how the market expanded this last Christmas increasing a wide array of movies. There was a larger audience. I wanted as many people to see this movie on the big screen as possible and I do feel like it’s more of that fourth quarter, early winter kind of feel in terms of the tone of the movie."
The delay puts the film in contention for awards season next year, it also gives Warners a decent-sized film for the fourth quarter this year as previously they only had sci-fi film Jeff Nichols' "Midnight Special, and the "Vacation" reboot scheduled for release.
The decision is one that can't have been made lightly considering the film's marketing campaign is now underway with at least two well placed trailers and posters already out.
Warner Bros has moved up the Liam Neeson action thriller Run All Night by a month, with that film now taking over the March 13th slot.
Chris Hemsworth plays the first mate Owen Chase who was supplanted as captain of the whaling ship by a better connected rival George Pollard (Benjamin Walker).. After the attack though, he becomes the hero who leads some of them to safety.
Brendan Gleeson plays an older version of one of the surviving crew members who is interviewed years later by author Melville. Sam Keeley plays one of the crew members. Cillian Murphy will play Matthew Joy, the ship's second mate. Tom Holland will play the role of Thomas Nickerson, the Essex's teenage cabin boy whose manuscript inspired Philbrick to write this book. Frank Dillane would play “an insubordinate crewman named Coffin who is a cousin of Walker’s character.” Charlotte Riley ("Easy Virtue") plays Peggy, the pregnant wife of Hemsworth's Chase.
Joe Roth, Palak Patel, Paula Weinstein, and Will Ward are producing the adaptation.
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