Wednesday, April 10, 2013

BBC Plans Whaling Drama Based on Moby-Dick Inspiration


The story of dramatic survival of 14-year-old Nantucket seafarer Thomas Nickerson following a shipwreck begins filming in Malta.

From a piece in the Guardian...

Nickerson and seven other survivors spent three months at sea before rescue, with some finding themselves on the Pacific Island Henderson and others resorting to cannibalism at sea.

Melville is widely believed to have read Chase's book about the sinking although he would not have read Nickerson's own account which was written 55 years later in 1876, just seven years before he died aged 78.

However the BBC will put the cabin boy at the centre of its own retelling of the events and is due to cast a well-known American actor in the role of the older Nickerson recounting his experiences.

According to the producers of The Whale, which is being made with the US broadcaster Discovery, Moby Dick is clearly inspired by many of the grisly experiences of the Essex crew as documented by Chase.

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