As io9’s Germain Lussier can attest, the first footage from director Brian Duffield’s Whalefall, based on the 2023 novel of the same name by Daniel Kraus, lit CinemaCon on fire back in April with its visceral depiction of a diver getting swallowed whole by a sperm whale and having to fight his way out of the belly of the beast. And for those of you, like me, who find the very concept of this film soul-shatteringly terrifying, Duffield has some even worse news, for which he can only apologize: “…We did our best to make [the film] as scientifically accurate as possible, and I’m so sorry for people that are going to be scared about that,” he told the Hollywood Reporter.
Scared doesn’t even begin to cover it, Brian. I’ll be sending you my therapy bill for even insinuating that my greatest fear, which I had always told myself was fully irrational, is actually possible, albeit only under a very specific set of conditions. “Yeah, you can get swallowed by a sperm whale. It’s funny, I think the things that will get dinged for not being accurate are actually accurate,” said Duffield. “Of course, there are liberties that we had to take for movie-making purposes, but we really tried to be as accurate as possible by working with a lot of whale experts.”
