The Whale

The Whale (2013)

Dramatic retelling of the fateful last voyage of the Nantucket whaleship Essex. When the Essex is attacked and sunk by a sperm whale in November 1820, her crew take to three fragile whalers. Alone in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the men must decide whether to head for the nearest islands - a thousand miles downwind to the west - or set out on an epic journey of almost three thousand miles to reach the South American mainland. Fear of cannibals forces them to choose South America. Almost three months later, the first whaler is rescued by another whaleship. Only three men are still alive. A week later the captain's whaler is also rescued, with just two men aboard. The third whaler is never found. This is a story of human endurance and what men in extremis will do to survive.

Date of release
2013-12-22
TMDB
5.3 / 10 (16)
Runtime
1h 30m
Genres
Drama, History, TV Movie
Director
Alrick Riley

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Malta

The Whale is a British television film that was first broadcast on BBC One on 22 December 2013. Terry Cafolla wrote the film about the Essex incident in 1820, which also formed the basis of Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick. The Whale was also broadcast on Animal Planet in the United States during the summer of 2014.

Production

The Whale used underwater shots and specialist equipment to create storm scenes for Essex, the whaleship the film is based on. The television film was made by BBC Factual Productions with Animal Planet as co-producer, with Eamon Hardy and Ruth Caleb as executive producers for the BBC and Mick Kaczorowski as executive producer for Animal Planet. The director is Alrick Riley and the composer is Debbie Wiseman. The producer is Mike Dormer.

Around the time of the first read-through of the script, Joe Armstrong left his role as Lawrence. The role was later given to Jolyon Coy who had recently finished the theatre show Posh. Filming began in Malta on 8 April 2013 and ended on 12 May 2013. In Malta, filming took place in Gozo and the Mediterranean Film Studios with the help of Latina Pictures.

On 25 November 2013, the BBC announced that the television film would be part of BBC One's Christmas schedule.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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