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[11/25/13 - 07:09 AM]
Awarding-Winning Legendary Actor Martin Sheen to Star in BBC/Animal Planet Television Film "The Whale"
Sheen portrays Old Thomas Nickerson, who tells a story of his life as a cabin boy on the ill-fated voyage of the whaling ship the Essex.







WHALE, THE (ANIMAL PLANET)
BROADCAST HISTORY:
11/26/14
STATUS:
telefilm/mini-series in the can
DESCRIPTION:
(from Animal Planet's press release, November 2013) Multiple award-winner Martin Sheen (The West Wing, The Amazing Spider-Man, Apocalypse Now) will star in THE WHALE, a two-hour film from BBC Factual Productions and Animal Planet. Based on true events, the film tells one of history's greatest stories of survival at sea as Martin Sheen portrays Old Thomas Nickerson, who tells a story of his life as a cabin boy on the ill-fated voyage of the whaling ship the Essex. THE WHALE is written by Terry Cafolla (Holy Cross, Messiah). Filming took place on location in Malta this past spring and wrapped up outside of London last summer. Martin Sheen leads the cast as the elder Nickerson with Jonas Armstrong (Robin Hood, The Street) as First Mate Owen Chase; Adam Rayner (The Hunted) as Captain Pollard; Paul Kaye (Game of Thrones, Stella) as Joy; David Gyasi (Cloud Atlas, War Horse) as Peterson; and Jolyon Coy (The Hollow Crown) as Lawrence. It also stars Jassa Ahluwalisa, John Boyega and Ferdinand Kingsley and introduces Charles Furness as the young Tom Nickerson. The BBC Factual Productions and Animal Planet drama is inspired by Chase and Pollard's real-life accounts of the ship's sinking. These accounts are said to have inspired Herman Melville's Moby Dick. The action-packed narrative follows Nickerson as, against all odds, he comes through the worst that nature throws at him while growing up fast in the process. He faces the destructive force of sea storms, the power of whales, the brutal desolation of the sun and sea after the shipwreck and, finally, the grim realities of dark deeds as his only means of survival. With breath-taking underwater footage and cutting-edge equipment and technology used to create storm scenes, THE WHALE beautifully captures the Essex caught in the treacherous sea storm.
PRINCIPAL CAST INFORMATION:
· Adam Rayner as Captain Pollard
· Charles Furness as Young Tom Nickerson
· David Gyasi as Peterson
· Ferdinand Kingsley as TBA
· Jassa Ahluwalisa as TBA
· John Boyega as TBA
· Jolyon Coy as Lawrence
· Jonas Armstrong as Owen Chase
· Martin Sheen as Old Thomas Nickerson
· Paul Kaye as Joy
CREW INFORMATION:
· ??? as DIR
· Eamon Hardy as EP
· Mick Kaczorowski as EP (AP)
· Mike Dormer as PROD
· Ruth Caleb as EP
· Terry Cafolla as WRTR
GENRE(S):
· mow
STUDIO INFORMATION:
· BBC Factual Productions