IN THE HEART OF THE SEA

Hammer and whale

Thor star Chris Hemsworth faces the mouth of madness in Ron Howard’s historical survival epic.

If you haven’t read Moby Dick, don’t. Not that Herman Melville’s classic adventure novel isn’t well worth your time, but Ron Howard’s getting ready to tell the true story…

Based on the infamous history of The Essex, a Nantucket whaling ship that got sunk by a rogue sperm whale in the South Pacific in 1820, it’s a gruelling tale of men and monsters that makes anything in Melville’s book (or in All Is Lost, Castaway or Jaws for that matter) look tame by comparison.

“It’s a romantic comedy!” jokes Chris Hemsworth, swapping his hammer for a harpoon to lead a rebellious crew of Cillian Murphy, Ben Wishaw, Brendan Gleeson and Tom Holland on three tiny rafts stranded in the middle of the ocean.

“It has a lot of action, but it’s dependent on rich characters and nuanced emotional performances,” explains Howard, reuniting with Hemsworth after last year’s Rush for a punishing open water shoot near the Canary Islands. “Nobody backed away from the challenge. In front and behind the camera it was, pardon the pun, all hands on deck at all times.”

Angry whales and empty horizons aren’t the only problem for the Essex crew though, with dwindling food supplies driving them to eat the only thing that comes to hand (or foot…).

“It’s funny, you’ve never heard 15 big, burly guys playing sailors talk about their calorie count, what they should and shouldn’t eat, what their cheat meal is going to be,” laughs Hemsworth, who joined the others on a cheek-hollowing crash diet to get a convincing cannibal look – something that’s not going to make Thor: Ragnarok easy to train for when he’s finished. “It’s a proper old-fashioned movie: men, sea, the elements and a whale,” shrugs Murphy.

“There’s no aliens in this. And no chance of a spin-off…” 

Release dates December 11, 2015