With filming now already underway, director Craig Gillespie has added an extra soul to the story of a real-life Coast Guard rescue in Disney’s The Finest Hours. According to Deadline, Eric Bana is now aboard, though from the sound of it he’ll be keeping his feet firmly on solid ground.
The drama will tell the true story of two oil tankers caught in a massive Nor’easter storm off the New England coast in 1952. The ships split in two and their crews were thrown into the raging seas. The coast guard was called out and had to attempt a rescue in tempestuous waves.
Chris Pine, Ben Foster and Casey Affleck will be part of the crew on deck while Kyle Gallner has landed the key role of the main rescue boat’s engineer, a young sailor with a lot to prove on the mission. Bana is set as Daniel Cluff, a respected Coast Guard warrant officer and the supervisor to Pine’s Bernie. He’s the man who orders Bernie to set sail despite his wife’s concerns.
Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson wrote the script, working from Casey Sherman and Michael J. Tougias’ 2010 non-fiction book about the incident, and Gillespie is set to deliver the film next year. Bana, last seen in Deliver Us From Evil, is also looking to snag a role in Jim Sheridan’s next film, The Secret Scripture.