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October 9, 2009:Moby Dick exits Shelburne... the excitement of having  a movie and movie stars in the small town of Shelburne came to this week when the film company began packing up for location shooting in Malta. On Saturday, props from the film will be auctioned off in the building that houses the sets for The Spouter Inn and warehouses of Nantucket and New Bedford. >>> see auction items here

Shelburne mayor Alan Delaney looks on as the set for the Seaman's Bethel suffers the gaping maw of a backhoe on Friday.

October 6, 2009:The Making of Moby Dick ; Shelburne plays the perfect Nantucket... For more than a week, the Historic Waterfront in Shelburne, Nova Scotia has been playing the part of both 1850s Nantucket and New Bedford, Massachusetts , then the epicenter of the massive and worldwide whaling industry. You couldn’t find better type casting anywhere, according to Rob Gray, production designer for the $25 million, 4-hour television production of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. “In so many ways, Shelburne is perfect for the role of that quaint, but bustling seaport,” said Mr. Gray in an interview.
     The largest set on Dock Street is a facsimile of the Nantucket Wharf , with Henry Willis Shipping, Majestic Whale Oil Spermaceti Limited and George T. Baker & Sons.  Gray and director Mike Barker and crew have also created replicas of The Spouter Inn, Seaman’s Bethel (Whaleman’s Chapel in New Bedford in Melville’s version) with graveyard, a black church, A.. J. Peters Shipsmiths, a chandlery and a long Nantucket streetscape.
     There have been several daytime and nighttime shoots during the filming and on Thursday evening, the cast and crew spent ten hours inside the Chapel filming the famed sermon by Father Mapple, played by Canadian actor, Donald Sutherland. On hand also were Ethan Hawke (Starbuck), Gillian Anderson (Ahab’s wife Elizabeth), Eddie Marsan (Stubb) and Raoul Trujillo (Queequeg), plus a bevy of extras as gentlemen and ladies, children and sailors about to head out to sea.
     Director Barker is known for his fastidiousness, which was apparent in the 2008 film, Sea Wolf - also shot in Nova Scotia - and many of the shots had several takes. The length of the shoot might have been an ordeal for some of the cast and crew, but not for lucky local Andrea Dedrick, who was tapped for a non-speaking role as Starbuck’s wife to play. She apparently was forced to kiss the heartthrob Ethan Hawke twenty or more times before Barker shouted “cut and print!”
     One of the more elaborate sets on the waterfront is the recreation of The Spouter’s Inn, where Melville’s protagonist Ishmael (played by Brit actor Charlie Cox) becomes acquainted with the sailors prior to his first whaling cruise and where he finds that he will be sharing a bed that night with the cannibalistic idol-worshiper Queequeg.  The north end of Cox’s warehouse is dressed to the nines in 19^th century pub fare and is dominated by a massive painting, which Ishmael describes in Moby Dick with great portent as “besmoked and defaced…”,  “…an unnatural combat of the four elements…”  and representing an exasperated whale impaling itself  on the three mastheads of a sinking ship.
     Nova Scotia filming for the movie began in Lunenburg last month and ended in Shelburne on Oct 6. The below decks interiors first scheduled for shooting locally have been transferred to Halifax and filming of the Pequod’s odyssey, including the hunting of whales and destruction by Moby Dick, will be done in Malta.  The film, produced by German media giant Tele Mhnchen Group, is expected to air in 2010. Timothy Gillespie is a Shelburne-based history enthusiast and writer. This is the first of a series of articles on the making of Moby Dick. This story forst appeared in the Shelburne County Coast Guard.

September 29, 2009:  Newspaper story of unhappy film company a tempest in a teapot... "We've never been treated like this," production assistant  Andrew McInnes of Big Motion Pictures told the Coast Guard on Monday. Apparently, the producers thought they had a deal with Halifax overseers on using the Dory Shop Museum as set and feel the deal was squelched, making them go to "plan B". The set for Spouters Inn has been built inside the north end of Cox's Warehouse. 
     The location problems, according to reliable sources were solved long ago and McInness' complaints do not represent the attitude of the production company or the film's producers and they are more than pleased with the cooperation, according to sources within the company. "Production assistants do not make decisions about where a film is being shot," said an industry insider, who also said that Mr. McInnes would not likely be included in a future Shelburne shoot. 
    What was not made clear in the Coast Guards story was that the buildings which are under local control are being used in several "sets" for film and are being made up by production designer Rob Gray to look and feel like the whaling town of Nantucket in 1850.
     Shooting in Shelburne begins on Wednesday for six days for day and night shoots.

September 29, 2009:  Anderson, Hurt charm cast & crew... Reports from the set of Moby Dick say that stars Gillian Anderson and William Hurt, have been relaxed and easy-going on the set of the $25 million TV movie. "At first, everyone was stiff, but a couple of days later Ms. Anderson was joking with the crew and extras, which made for a much easier day for everyone," a crew member told SCT.

September 24, 2009:  X-files star Gillian Anderson fans spike Moby Dick web 800%... Despite the fact that noted actors William Hurt, Donald Sutherland and Ethan Hawke are starring in the TV mini-series Moby Dick being shot in Shelburne, Lunenburg and Malta, the fans of popular X-Files actress Gillian Anderson have deluged the SCT Moby Dick web site since reports of the star's involvement with the film circulated last week. The fans span the globe, with dozens visiting from Russia and eastern Europe.

September 21, 2009:  MOBY DICK haunts American dreams still, says Greil Marcus in New Statesman... "There are many great endings in American literature, as if the country's most poetic stories incline toward the end of America, that being contained whole in the skin of a single character, as an explicit or hidden theme. These endings are always political, whatever their costuming in private dramas of love or money: no matter what passport the reader might carry, they momentarily implicate the reader as an American."... >>> read more

September 21, 2009:  Gillian Anderson, James Gilbert, Donald Sutherland added to MOBY DICK cast... Popular X-Files actress Gillian Anderson and Nova Scotia actor James Gilbert (The Tudors) are reported to have joined the growing cast of MOBY DICK, being shot in Shelburne and Lunenburg, with water scenes shot in Malta. Famed homeboy Donald Sutherland is being talked about as the pick for father Mapple, who delivers the passionate sermon from the nautical pulpit at the Whaleman's Chapel (set built on Shelburne waterfront). Sutherland is one of the most seasoned actors working, with almost 300 entries on his IMDB page. He has roots in Nova Scotia, having served as news guy for CKBW when he was 14. 
      Anderson will play Elizabeth, wife of Caption Ahab (William Hurt) and Gilbert is slated for the role of Steelkilt. Charlie Cox (Stardust, and Raoul Trujillo (In Plain Sight, The Unit) are set as well. In a wiki site for entertainment figues, Anderson's X-Files character Dana Scully is said to have been Moby Dick by her father when she was a girl. They gave each other nicknames from the book. She called her father Ahab and he called her Starbuck.

More Moby Dick action on Shelburne waterfront... The 4-hour remake of the famed Moby Dick is now moving ahead at a grand rate. The little Chapel appears done, work on the interiors and exteriors of a tavern is well along and yet another ersatz building has sprung up in front of Cox's Warehouse.
     Filming in Lunenburg is set for next week and Shelburne shooting commences in Shelburne on September 30 for five days. Star William Hurt (Ahab) has been on the waterfront and seems to have taken a liking to The Bean Dock - little wonder!

William Hurt & Ethan Hawke slated to star in $25 million Moby Dick.... William Hurt (Robin Hood, Kiss of the Spider Woman), will portray the megamaniacal, peg-legged captain Ahab of the whaler Pequod and Ethan Hawke (Staten Island, Training Day) is set to play first mate Starbuck in the upcoming miniseries retelling of Moby Dick.
     According to The Hollywood Reporter, the miniseries is based on Herman Melville's 1851 novel, and is being produced by Herbert Kloiber's Tele Munchen and is being called the most expensive project in the German company's 40-year history. The budget is clocking at $25 million.
     "We are delighted to have signed up two such powerful, charismatic and versatile actors as William Hurt and Ethan Hawke for the lead roles," Kloiber said.
     The press relations officer for Tele Munchen told SCT that further stars will be announced prior to the MipCom TV trade show in Cannes in early October, where producers hope to sign European and North American distribution deals. 
     The film is a two-part TV mini series and is expected to wrap in 2010 and air in 2011.

Whaleman's Chapel recreated on Shelburne waterfront.... The famed Whaleman's Chapel from the novel Moby Dick (modeled on the Seaman's Bethel in New Bedford, Massachusetts) has been rebuilt on Shelburne's waterfront (see photo at left).  The chapel is the site for the famous scene from John Houston's 1956 version of Moby Dick, with Orson Welles' giving an awe-inspiring sermon.(see story here about Bethel) (read annotated chapter from Moby Dick) (see Bethel web here)

Shelburne and Lunenburg will stand in for Nantucket, Massachusetts, later this month when cameras begin rolling on "Moby Dick," a made-for-television mini-series shot in Nova Scotia and Malta.
     The famous man versus-whale story of Captain Ahab and his hunt for "the" whale was first told in the classic 1851 novel by Herman Melville. Mike Barker (Seae Wolf) directs and David McLeod (Big Motion Pictures, Chester) is Canadian producer
      It is reported that the tall ship playing the [whaleship] Pequod is European and didn't want to cross the Atlantic for the ocean sequences and the Malta film was needed for for water/whaleboat sequences. As a result, all the rest of the film is anticipated to be shot in and around Malta.
     Although very little is being released at this time about the project, it has been confirmed that it is a period film set in the 1850s. Filming in Lunenburg is set to begin on September 22 for one week before moving to Shelburne to continue filming September 30. 

Whale boats built in Nova Scotia... NorseBoat in Lunenburg is currently building six traditional whale boats for the Malta shoot for Moby-Dick.  (see story here)