Everybody likes whales, right (even the Japanese, except they mainly like them served on a plate rather than swimming in the sea)? Well, it seems that a new cetacean based movie is closer to the screen as Universal has given the greenlight to Whales, which Ken Kwapis (He's Just not That Into You, License To Wed) will direct, with John Krasinski and Drew Barrymore starring.
While Deadline reports the based on a true story movie is about a 'trio of California gray whales that got trapped under the ice of the Arctic Circle' in 1988, that's not quite right, as if they were literally under the ice they would have drowned. What actually happened was they were trapped in a small (and shrinking) pocket of open water, surrounded by ice, too far from the sea for them to be able to escape without drowning.
Kransinski will play the small town newspaper reporter, while Barrymore will be a Greenpeace activist. Together they break the story and turn into into an international cause celebre, which even results in a thaw in Cold War relations, with Regan and Gorbachev stepping in to try and save the whales.
Filming is currently planned for the autumn on the family friendly flick, although it largely depends on Krasinski's Office commitments and when he can fit it in.