Ron Howard's In the Heart of the Sea

Because it's been delayed from March 2015 until Christmas 2015, there's time to talk about this film. Ron Howard is back, he's just come off the brilliant biopic Rush (2013), and now he's made another true life story which inspired one of the greatest novels of all time. This is based on Nathaniel Philbrick's 2000 novel of the same name, it's an epic adventure and survival story which has been in development for well over a decade, but In the Heart of the Sea looks set to be a great epic, and it'll be Howard's largest scale film to date.

Set in 1820, it tells the story of the Essex, a whaleship from Nantucket, Massachusetts, which is manned by Captain George Pollard, Jr. (Benjamin Walker), first mate Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth), second mate Matthew Joy (Cillian Murphy), and cabin boy Thomas Nickerson (Tom Holland), they set sail and find themselves pitted against an absolute mammoth bull sperm whale, and the crews only hope for survival is to head for South America, but food and water is running low and the ship is getting more and more damaged by the whale.

It's these true events that inspired Herman Melville to write Moby Dick, (Melville is portrayed in the film by Ben Whishaw), and without Moby Dick, you wouldn't have had Jaws (1975). Howard can just about turn his attention to anything, and it'll be good to see what he does with this story, he's reunited with Hemsworth after working together on Rush. The trailer makes it look like a very suspenseful adventure which doesn't shy away from the horror that the crew members went through.







It'll be released on December 11th 2015, it's been delayed because Howard saw the film had prestigious value and could do well come awards season. It's been a while since we've had an old fashioned sea-faring adventure, the last big one was Master and Commander, but this is a true life adventure. But, Howard has good cast together, although it would have been nice to have seen the film sooner, but it'll give Howard the chance to fine tune the film. But, it looks good, and audiences can ride the Nantucket Sleighride this Christmas.