Young Brit actor boards whaling tale.
16 year-old British actor Tom Holland, who made his feature debut in Juan Antonio Bayona’s ‘The Impossible,’ is set to join Chris Hemsworth on the cast of ‘In the Heart of the Sea,’ reports Deadline.
With Ron Howard in the director’s chair, the film is an adaptation of Nathaniel Philbrick’s 2011 book of the same name and is the tale of Nantucket whaling ship the Essex.
In 1819, the Essex left port for the South Pacific with twenty crew members aboard. In the middle of the South Pacific the ship was rammed and sunk by an angry sperm whale. The crew drifted for more than ninety days in three tiny whaleboats, succumbing to weather, hunger, disease, and ultimately turning to drastic measures in the fight for survival. The ordeal of the Essex inspired Herman Melville’s ‘Moby Dick.’
Holland is set to star as Young Nickerson, an eager aspiring whaleman aboard the Nantucket-based whaling ship.
Filming will set to kick off this September in London with Howard directing from a screenplay by Charles Leavitt (‘Blood Diamond’).