Cillian Murphy Cast in Ron Howard's IN THE HEART OF THE SEA

Batman Begins star Cillian Murphy has been cast in director Ron Howard's next film project In the Heart of the Sea. Murphy will join Thor star Chris Hemsworth who has been attached to the film from the very beginning.

The movie will be based on a book by Nathaniel Philbrick that tells the true disaster story that inspired the classic tale of Moby Dick. The fact-based film will follow a Nantucket whaling ship the called the Essex, which was stalked and destroyed by a sperm whale in 1820. The crew was stranded thousands of miles from home, and they did whatever they could to survive during the 90 days that they were lost.

Hemsworth will play "a first mate who was supplanted as captain of the whaling ship by a better connected rival. When the ship was attacked by the sperm whale in the Pacific, he becomes the hero who leads some of them to safety. A total of 20 crewmen, the captain and first mate escaped in small whaling boats. An isolated tropical island was just 1000 miles downwind, but the captain ordered them to head the other way, out of fear of false rumors of flesh eating savages on the island. Because they headed to South America, the boats were stranded. The survivors were ironically forced to become cannibals, casting lots in one ship to see who had to die and who had to execute him to others could eat and survive. That’s part of the tale, but another big part is the depiction of the New England whaling industry of the 1800s, when men risked their lives to chase and harpoon whales for their oil."

Murphy will play a character named Matthew Joy, the second mate on the whale ship. So far it's got a solid team of talent attached to it, and it's going to end up being a great movie! I'm very excited about this.