a tale of a whale and a wales
a heart-warming true story of how a giant fake whale and a giant of Hollywood inspired a poor welsh seaside town to dream of bigger fish
think 'under milk wood' meets 'local hero'
IN 1954, Hollywood royalty descended on the seaside town of fishguard in rural west wales to film the iconic adaptation of herman millville's masterpiece, Moby Dick.
Led by legendary director john huston, with iconic movie star gregory peck on board to play the infamous captain ahab, and accompanied by cinema's greatest genius orson welles in a small supporting role - suddenly sleepy fishguard was transformed into the 19th century coast of america, and in the bay, an 85-foot-long, steel-reinforced, rubberised version of the whale, Moby Dick itself, was constructed, floating in the harbour for all to see...
over a gruelling seven month shoot, a strange chaos is unleashed:
the film's glamorous cast and crew take up residence in a sprawling old hotel next to the town, steadily going slightly crazy as they start to embody the wild spirit of moby dick both professionally and personally...
an authentic 19th century schooner docks in the bay, by day the home for the embattled creative team and by night looming like a ghost ship...
whilst in the town and surrounding countryside, the arrival of wealth, money and movie stars is too much temptation to try to resist: it isn't long before the locals are crashing the wild hollywood parties and stealing the dinner, the dances and maybe the hearts of their american visitors...
whilst in the centre of it all is gregory peck, living legend and myth, becoming both captain ahab and perhaps, without expecting it, more than a little like...
the whale he is try to shoot...
or even... the wales...
And so, locals and visitors come together to create
a whales movie
a tall tale of how a foreign story might take over a town, or even a nation, only to reawaken the giant, universal dreams that live, forgotten, within every one of us
