Chris Hemsworth Fights In New Movie Against Moby Dick, Shipwreck – And Cannibals?!

Chris Hemsworth fights in his new movie, In the Heart of the Sea, against several beasts that you normally would not see in a Marvel movie – Moby Dick, shipwreck and cannibals!

In the Ron Howard-directed film, Chris Hemsworth plays Owen Chase – the first mate of the whaleship named Essex in 1820.

During their voyage, the ship is attacked by a large bull sperm whale – later believed to be the inspiration for the character Moby Dick. Their ship is destroyed and the entire crew is left shipwrecked at sea more than 1,000 miles away from home for three months.

According to Indie Wire, the film will primarily focus on the aftermath of the shipwreck and what the crew is forced to do in order to survive and eventually make it back home.

As mentioned, there does come a time when the crew has to battle against cannibals – but not exactly in a way that you might think.

In the Heart of the Sea was actually adapted by Ron Howard and a team of screenwriters (including Peter Morgan, Charles Leavitt and Amanda Silver) from a best-selling book of the same name released back in 2000 written by Nathaniel Philbrick.

In the book, one of the biggest fears of the crew members was to travel to the island of Tahiti. It is was feared, according to a report released by Economist, because they thought that the island was full of cannibals.

However, the “cruel irony” of the story is that (in order to survive) the crew themselves had to become cannibals – placing Chris Hemsworth’s character into a pit of conflict and desperation.

In the Heart of the Sea is, according to the National Parks Traveler, not a “tale of adventure” but rather a “tragedy.”

“Although rations appear to have been distributed equally, it was almost as if the Nantucketers existed in a protective bubble as off-island crew members…fell by the [wayside] until the Nantucketers had…no choice but to eat their own. The Essex disaster is not a tale of adventure. It is a tragedy that happens to be one of the greatest true stories ever told.”

Filming In the Heart of the Sea paired Chris Hemsworth with Oscar-winning director Ron Howard for the second time – the first was in the 2013 sports drama Rush.

Starring alongside Chris Hemsworth in this movie is an impressive list of actors – Cillian Murphy, Benjamin Walker and Tom Murphy.

In the Heart of the Sea is scheduled to be released on March 15, 2015.

Do you think that Chris Hemsworth’s performance in this movie could earn him an Oscar nomination?

[Image Credit: Collider & We Are Movie Geeks]