William Hurt and Ethan Hawke to Star in New TV Version of Moby Dick

Stage and screen veterans William Hurt and Ethan Hawke will star in a new TV adaptation of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, to be completed in 2010, according to Variety. The film will be directed by Mike Barker and feature a script by Nigel Williams.

Hurt will portray the fanatical, one-legged Captain Ahab, whose obsessive hunt for the legendary white whale endangers his ship and crew, while Hawke will play Starbuck, the first officer of the Pequod and the only crew member who dares to oppose Ahab and his mad quest.

Hurt received a Tony Award nomination for the Broadway production of Hurlyburly and won the Academy Award for Kiss of the Spider Woman. Hawke received a Tony nomination for The Coast of Utopia, appeared on Broadway in Henry IV and The Seagull, and was recently seen on stage in the Bridge Project’s productions of The Cherry Orchard and The Winter’s Tale. He received an Academy Award nomination for Training Day.