Moby Dick (miniseries)
Encyclopedia
Moby Dick is a television miniseries based on Herman Melville
Herman Melville
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and the posthumous novella Billy Budd....

's 1851 novel of the same name
Moby-Dick
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, was written by American author Herman Melville and first published in 1851. It is considered by some to be a Great American Novel and a treasure of world literature. The story tells the adventures of wandering sailor Ishmael, and his voyage on the whaleship Pequod,...

, produced by RHI Entertainment
RHI Entertainment
RHI Entertainment , formerly known as Hallmark Entertainment, is an American producer of television movies and miniseries, founded in 1979 by Robert Halmi Jr. and Robert Halmi Sr. as Robert Halmi Incorporated....

, Tele München Gruppe, and Gate Filmproduktion. Starring William Hurt
William Hurt
William McGill Hurt is an American stage and film actor. He received his acting training at the Juilliard School, and began acting on stage in the 1970s. Hurt made his film debut as a troubled scientist in the science-fiction feature Altered States , for which he received a Golden Globe nomination...

 as Captain Ahab, it was directed by Mike Barker
Mike Barker (film director)
- Filmography :*Butterfly on a Wheel *A Good Woman *To Kill a King *Lorna Doone *Best Laid Plans *The James Gang - External links :*...

 with a screenplay by Nigel Williams
Nigel Williams (author)
Nigel Williams is an English novelist, screenwriter and playwright.-Biography:He was educated at Highgate School and Oriel College, Oxford, is married with three sons and lives in Putney, south-west London...

. The cast also includes Ethan Hawke
Ethan Hawke
Ethan Green Hawke is an American actor, writer and director. He made his feature film debut in 1985 with the science fiction movie Explorers, before making a supporting appearance in the 1989 drama Dead Poets Society which is considered his breakthrough role...

 as Starbuck, Charlie Cox
Charlie Cox
Charlie Cox is an English actor.-Life and career:Cox, the youngest of five children, was born in London, England and raised in East Sussex, the son of Trisha and Andrew, who is a publisher...

 as Ishmael, Eddie Marsan
Eddie Marsan
Edward Maurice C. "Eddie" Marsan is an English actor.-Early life:Marsan was born in Stepney, London to a working class family; his father was a lorry driver and his mother a school dinner lady and teacher's assistant...

 as Stubb, Donald Sutherland
Donald Sutherland
Donald McNichol Sutherland, OC is a Canadian actor with a film career spanning nearly 50 years. Some of Sutherland's more notable movie roles included offbeat warriors in such war movies as The Dirty Dozen, , MASH , and Kelly's Heroes , as well as in such popular films as Klute, Invasion of the...

 as Father Mapple, and Gillian Anderson
Gillian Anderson
Gillian Leigh Anderson is an American actress.After beginning her career in theatre, Anderson achieved international recognition for her role as Special Agent Dana Scully on the American television series The X-Files. During the show's nine seasons, Anderson won Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen...

 as Ahab's wife, Elizabeth.

Cast

  • William Hurt
    William Hurt
    William McGill Hurt is an American stage and film actor. He received his acting training at the Juilliard School, and began acting on stage in the 1970s. Hurt made his film debut as a troubled scientist in the science-fiction feature Altered States , for which he received a Golden Globe nomination...

     as Captain Ahab
  • Ethan Hawke
    Ethan Hawke
    Ethan Green Hawke is an American actor, writer and director. He made his feature film debut in 1985 with the science fiction movie Explorers, before making a supporting appearance in the 1989 drama Dead Poets Society which is considered his breakthrough role...

     as Starbuck
  • Charlie Cox
    Charlie Cox
    Charlie Cox is an English actor.-Life and career:Cox, the youngest of five children, was born in London, England and raised in East Sussex, the son of Trisha and Andrew, who is a publisher...

     as Ishmael
  • Eddie Marsan
    Eddie Marsan
    Edward Maurice C. "Eddie" Marsan is an English actor.-Early life:Marsan was born in Stepney, London to a working class family; his father was a lorry driver and his mother a school dinner lady and teacher's assistant...

     as Stubb
  • Gillian Anderson
    Gillian Anderson
    Gillian Leigh Anderson is an American actress.After beginning her career in theatre, Anderson achieved international recognition for her role as Special Agent Dana Scully on the American television series The X-Files. During the show's nine seasons, Anderson won Emmy, Golden Globe, and Screen...

     as Elizabeth, Ahab's wife
  • Donald Sutherland
    Donald Sutherland
    Donald McNichol Sutherland, OC is a Canadian actor with a film career spanning nearly 50 years. Some of Sutherland's more notable movie roles included offbeat warriors in such war movies as The Dirty Dozen, , MASH , and Kelly's Heroes , as well as in such popular films as Klute, Invasion of the...

     as Father Mapple
  • Billy Boyd as Elijah
  • Raoul Trujillo
    Raoul Trujillo
    Born Jose Raoul TrujilloAlso known as Raul Trujillo and Max Cheblon|parents= Luis and Lorraine TrujilloHis official website is raoultrujilloinfo.com, created by Charmaine deValois in London....

     as Queequeg
  • James Gilbert
    James Gilbert (actor)
    James Gilbert is a Canadian film, television, and stage actor.James is best known for his role as William Brereton in the Showtime historical drama series, The Tudors. James has most recently starred in the remake of Moby Dick , along with William Hurt, Ethan Hawke and Eddie Marsan and the...

     as Steelkilt
  • Daniel Gordon as Pip
  • Matthew Lemche as Flask
  • Billy Merasty
    Billy Merasty
    Billy Merasty is a Canadian actor and writer of Cree descent. He moved to Toronto at the age of 17, and launched his acting career after attending a theatre school program for aboriginal youth....

     as Tashtego
  • Onyekachi Ejim as Dagoo
  • Gary Levert as Perth
  • Richard Donat
    Richard Donat
    Richard Donat is a Canadian actor known for his roles in Canadian and American television. He is currently into his second season as a cast member of the Canadian-American TV series, Haven...

     as Inn Landlord
  • Sandy MacLean as Quaker Preacher
  • Glen Matthews as Tom
  • Stephen McHattie
    Stephen McHattie
    Stephen McHattie is a Canadian actor.-Life and career:McHattie was born in Antigonish, Nova Scotia....

     as Rachel Captain

Production

A "reimagined" version of Melville's book, Moby Dick was shot primarily in Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...

 during late 2009. Costing US$25 million, it is Tele München's most expensive production to date. This adaptation gives Ahab a wife named Elizabeth, although Melville's story lacks female characters. In 1998, producer Robert Halmi Sr. worked on a similar miniseries for the USA Network
USA Network
USA Network is an American cable television channel launched in 1971. Once a minor player in basic cable, the network has steadily gained popularity because of breakout hits like Monk, Psych, Burn Notice, Royal Pains, Covert Affairs, White Collar, Monday Night RAW, Suits, and reruns of the various...

, starring Patrick Stewart
Patrick Stewart
Sir Patrick Hewes Stewart, OBE is an English film, television and stage actor, who has had a distinguished career in theatre and television for around half a century...

.

Release

Moby Dick aired on the U.S. pay-television network Encore on August 1 and 2, 2011. It is the first program to air under the Encore Originals brand, as well as the network's first miniseries. Prior to this airing, it was broadcast in Australia and some other countries.

Critical reception

The miniseries received fairly positive reviews, with an average score of 68/100 assigned by Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

. Linda Stasi of the New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...

gave the miniseries three stars out of four; Nancy DeWolf Smith of The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....

also gave it a positive review, but warned that "Purists [of the novel] may go wild" over changes from the original story. Likewise, Hank Stuever of The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...

called it "a lavish, exciting, well-acted and admirably thorough movie adaptation". The New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....

' David Hinckley awarded it three stars out of five, remarking: "The action will hold your attention, though [the miniseries] is really more a drama of character and flaws and faith. At times, in fact, it lapses into melodrama." Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

wrote that while "[it] is not entirely silly or even half bad", "it’s an ambitious, beautifully made adventure tale that seeks to be respectful of the book while still making the characters and story accessible to modern viewers." She called the creation of scenes involving Captain Ahab's wife the "most startling" change to Melville's story, noting that the wife was "only fleetingly mentioned" in the original book. Stanley further commented on a few modernized lines in the script, and added, "Some shortcuts and substitutions are useful. Too often, however, the improvisations fall back on clichés that don’t visually distill Melville’s words as much as they forcibly remind viewers of other books and movies."
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