I hope I properly warned you about the randomness of some of the content I’ll be uploading because this definitely qualifies.
I’m a huge (huge) fan of Nathaniel Philbrick’s In the Heart of the Sea, which Ron Howard has adapted to the big screen, and which will open in December. I know most people are getting in a fever about the new Star Wars, and I’m excited for that too, but a 19th century whaling story full of tragedy, hubris, sacrifice, and cannibalism?
No contest!
So yeah, I’m super excited, but also have to confess I’m experiencing some anxiety about it. If Howard screws this one up, he will have incurred my eternal wrath (and boy will you hear about it). This is the story that inspired Moby Dick, which is a really important book to me also (you’ll likely hear more about this later).
But until then, I’m keeping a positive thought. It’s got a phenomenal cast. I love Chris Hemsworth and Cillian Murphy especially, and am very much looking forward to relative newcomer Frank Dillane in a supporting role (he plays my favorite “character” in the book). If the adaptation goes south, hopefully the actors will keep it watchable nonetheless.
Crossing my fingers for a great production, and meanwhile wishing they made coloring books for movies like this. I have no idea why that strikes me as something I would want, but I do like coloring. Not that this story would necessarily make a great coloring book. 
I mean, that poster is beautiful and all, but it’s mostly just ocean for days, which I suspect will be true of the film as well. Nevertheless, once I get an idea in my head, it’s hard to let it go.
No one will probably ever actually make a coloring book about the tragedy of the Essex (though Dover did put out a nice whaling coloring book once, surprisingly enough), so I’ve made a coloring page of my own. And lucky you, it’s downloadable so you can enjoy it too!
I know it’s exactly what you were hoping for!
I had fun doing this (and might make more ~ we’ll see how the movie goes). I did it super-quickly in an idle moment from an Asian variation on the poster. Also did it with a brush pen to get that sort of old-fashioned coloring book style. Poor Cillian Murphy is virtually unrecognizable, but I think Hemsworth came out okay.
Don’t mind my sloppy computer coloring job here. Just wanted to demonstrate that you can work lots of colors into otherwise boring blue skies and blue oceans.
[Click here or on the images to download an uncolored .pdf page to print and color!]
The reviews are coming in for Ron Howard’s In the Heart of the Sea and they’re not very good. I have been trying to hold out hope that critics are blasting the movie for being about whaling (since that’s not exactly politically correct), but after perusing a sampling, it seems like they’re criticizing everything from bad pacing, bad special effects, and bad accents. Even the critics who have been enthusiastic about it concede that it’s deeply flawed.
Note: Yes, I do realize I cited a movie about cannibalism in defense of another movie about cannibalism. It was unintentional, but there you have it. That’s not too worrying, is it?
