Come January, Craig Gillespie’s real-life drama The Finest Hours will whisk moviegoers back into the year 1952, telling the gruelling tale of a sinking oil tanker in the bitter-cold waters of the North Atlantic. Before that, though, the award-winning director Ron Howard is primed to take us further back in time with In The Heart of the Sea, which is set to tell a very different tale of life on the high seas.
Arriving not long after the latest – and final – trailer for the Warner Bros.’ epic, today’s batch of screenshots are intended to spotlight some of the leading cast members, particularly those aboard the doomed Essex whaling ship. Upon encountering a sperm whale of gargantuan size, In The Heart of the Sea then unfolds into a survival pic, charting a Herculean tussle between humanity and nature that would eventually go on to seed Herman Melville’s seminal novel, Moby Dick.
Indeed, Howard’s latest feature is an adaptation of its own, lifting inspiration from Nathaniel Philbrick novel of the same name. Exploring the dark themes that only come forth when humans are left on the brink of death, Philbrick’s original work saw the brave crew of the Essex resort to cannibalism once their prized vessel is left tumbling down to the floor of the ocean. But will Howard’s rendition of the tale feature these harrowing twists and turns? We’ll find out soon enough.
Also starring Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson, Michelle Fairley, Charlotte Riley, and Frank Dillane, Ron Howard’s In The Heart of the Sea will plot course for Oscar glory when the director’s maritime adventure arrives on December 11.
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 Herman 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.
