Being swallowed alive by a sperm whale already sounds like a bad day. Spending an entire movie trying to escape from inside one may be worse.
A new Whalefall first-look featurette goes behind Brian Duffield’s unusual survival thriller, with Austin Abrams and the filmmakers discussing the physical challenge of creating Jay Gardiner’s nightmare. Much of the production involved Abrams climbing, diving and fighting his way around a huge practical whale interior built inside a Los Angeles soundstage, with visual effects completing the enormous creature around him.
Based on Daniel Kraus’ novel, the story follows Jay as he searches for his late father’s remains and ends up inside an 80-foot sperm whale with only one hour of oxygen. Josh Brolin plays his father, whose lessons may ultimately be the thing that gets him out alive. Whalefall opens exclusively in theaters October 16.
