EXCLUSIVE: Elisabeth Shue, John Ortiz, Jane Levy and Emily Rudd have rounded out the cast of 20th Century’s movie adaptation of the Daniel Kraus novel Whalefall, with Brian Duffield directing and Austin Abrams and Josh Brolin starring. Duffield will co-write the script with Kraus.
The film is described as The Martian meets 127 Hours, centering on a scuba diver in search of his deceased father’s remains who gets swallowed by an 80-foot, 60-ton sperm whale and has only one hour to escape before his oxygen runs out. After giving up on life, the young man is surprised to find a reason to live in the most dangerous and unlikely of places.
Imagine Entertainment’s Brian Grazer, Jeb Brody and Allan Mandelbaum are producing. Mandelbaum brought the book into Imagine and previously produced Duffield’s No One Will Save You (for 20th Century Studios). Duffield will also produce. Production starts next week in Los Angeles.
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Shue recently starred as Lily Wheeland in the 2024 dramedy The Good Half, and reprised her beloved role as Ali Mills in the final season of Netflix’s Cobra Kai. She also appeared in the Prime series Gen V, continuing her involvement in The Boys universe.
Ortiz was recently seen in the Oscar-nominated American Fiction. He can also be seen in the Netflix limited series The Madness opposite Colman Domingo. Je also recently appeared in the Bill Lawrence Apple TV+ series Bad Monkey.
Levy most recently starred in A Little Prayer, which premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and is set for a 2025 release. She became well known for her role as Tessa Altman on ABC’s Suburgatory as well as Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead remake and the thriller Don’t Breathe for Screen Gems.
Rudd can be seen in the live-action Netflix adaptation of One Piece. Within its first week, One Piece set a record for Netflix as the No. 1-ranked television series in 84 countries. She previously starred in Netflix’s Fear Street trilogy and booked the lead of the USA pilot Olive Forever.
Shue is repped by Untitled Entertainment, and Ortiz is repped by Gersh, Principal Entertainment LA and Schreck Rose Dapello Adams Berlin & Dunham. Levy is repped by UTA, Rise Management, and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern, and Rudd is repped by Gersh, Entertainment 360 and law firm JATWMM.
