FOLLOWING FILMS

On this episode we attempt to survive in space with Hadas from the Common Room podcast, and thankfully we have a couple of movies on the subject to entertain us. In APOLLO 13, Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, and Kevin Bacon rely on each other and the crew back on Earth to put together a plan to return home after a failed trip to the moon, whereas in GRAVITY it’s Sandra Bullock in a solo quest to return to our home planet, although George Clooney does provide a brief pep talk. But before all that grim business, we express a little bit of joy with Jess and Non of the Joy Sandwich podcast, as we admire the humor with which Matt Damon approaches being stranded on Mars in new release THE MARTIAN.

A new international trailer for director  Ron Howard ’s adaptation of the  Nathaniel Philbrick  non-fiction book  In the Heart of the Sea  has landed online.  The film tells the story of the whaling ship Essex, which in 1819 was rammed by an angry whale in the South Pacific.  The surviving crew drifted for 90 days in three tiny whaleboats and encountered disease, hunger, and eventually cannibalism, and the harrowing true story served as the basis for  Herman Melville ’s  Moby Dick .  I was a big fan of what Howard put together for his previous film,  Rush , and it looks like he’s on a roll with this follow-up.  Once again reuniting with cinematographer  Anthony Dod Mantle , they appear to capture the terrifying nature of this sea expedition in visceral fashion, putting the audience right in the middle of the drama that ensues. Check out the new  In the Heart of the Sea  trailer after the jump.  The fi...