Disney is putting together a very strong cast for its upcoming true-disaster adventure pic The Finest Hours, about the Coast Guard’s valiant efforts to rescue the crews of two oil tankers caught in a fierce Noreaster off the coast of Cape Cod in 1952. We already knew that Chris Pine and Casey Affleck would be toplining the film, and today brings word from Deadline that the studio has tapped a less familiar name to tackle a major role.
Kyle Gallner, best known for his parts in the Nightmare on Elm Street redo and in Jennifer’s Body, will take on the pivotal part of the rescue-boat’s engineman, “who feels like he has a lot to prove on the mission to save the lives of dozens of men clinging to life in the waters of the Atlantic.”
Craig Gillespie (Million Dollar Arm) is directing The Finest Hours from a script by The Fighter duo Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson, which they adapted from Casey Sherman and Michael J. Tougias’s 2009 non-fiction book The Finest Hours: The True Story Behind the US Coast Guard’s Most Daring Rescue.
This is just the latest noteworthy gig for Gallner, whose star has been on the rise in recent years. He appears in the upcoming Dear White People and in Just Before I Go, directed by Friends actress Courtney Cox, and will also have a part in Clint Eastwood’s awards contender American Sniper as well as jumping into the lead role of a grown-up Huckleberry Finn for Band of Robbers, which transforms Huck and Tom Sawyer into modern day treasure-seekers. Given his past performances and exciting schedule, there’s no reason to think Gallner won’t soar even higher after The Finest Hours.
We’ll keep you posted as more on The Finest Hours, certainly a buzzy project for Disney, develops in the coming months.
