Star Trek actor Chris Pine is in talks to lead a Disney period drama called The Finest Hours, which focuses on the efforts of the coast guard to rescue the crews of two oil tankers caught in a Noreaster. Based on an actual rescue in 1952, the project is being approached as a suspenseful but uplifting drama.
Craig Gillespie, behind the upcoming Disney film Million Dollar Arm, is also in talks to direct The Finest Hours. The helmer will replace Robert Schwentke (Red, R.I.P.D.), who left the project amid script rewrites to film Summit Entertainment’s Divergent follow-up Insurgent.
Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson, the same writing duo behind The Fighter, penned the screenplay, basing it on Casey Sherman and Michael J. Tougias’s 2009 nonfiction book The Finest Hours: The True Story Behind the US Coast Guard’s Most Daring Rescue.
If Pine does come on board, he’ll attempt to squeeze The Final Hours in before working on the next Star Trek film. Now that J.J. Abrams has stated that he won’t be returning in a directorial capacity and Star Trek 3 has been tentatively slotted for 2016, we’re expecting details about production to emerge in the next few months.
The actor is coming off Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, a Tom Clancy adaptation that despite grossing a respectable $130 million was considered a pretty huge disappointment for Paramount. Most analysts have blamed the film’s marketing campaign, which failed to distinguish Jack Ryan from other spy thrillers, but perhaps box office numbers for The Final Hours will give an indicator of whether Pine is still a draw, given that the project will depend heavily on his dramatic chops.
No release date has yet been set for The Finest Hours, though it’s likely that the project will film soon and aim to open in either the spring or fall of 2015, avoiding the jam-packed summer season. Given the dramatic nature of the material, it’s possible that Disney may angle the project for awards attention in next year’s races.
