Big Miracle (opening in theaters on February 3^rd) is inspired by the incredible true story of a family of majestic gray whales trapped by rapidly forming ice in the Arctic Circle, and how an entire Alaskan community fought to save them, with the help of rival world superpowers. Showing the rescue from multiple perspectives, the film covers the media circus that descended upon the town of Barrow, Alaska, as well as the unlikely coalition of rescuers that put aside their various agendas in order to accomplish the seemingly impossible task of freeing the whales.

At the film’s press day, director Ken Kwapis talked about how this story definitely falls under the category of truth being stranger than fiction, how things had to be cut for both budgetary and cinematic reasons, why it was so important to him to have animatronic instead of CG whales, his approach to directing for film versus television, and why he enjoys working with Drew Barrymore so much (they previously did He’s Just Not That Into You together). Check out what he had to say after the jump:

Big Miracle (opening in theaters on February 3^rd) is inspired by the incredible true story of a family of majestic gray whales trapped by rapidly forming ice in the Arctic Circle, and how an entire Alaskan community fought to save them, with the help of rival world superpowers. For the film, Ted Danson, who is a real-life advocate for cleans oceans and safe water practices worldwide, took on the role of stanch anti-environment businessman J.W. McGraw, while Dermot Mulroney took the honor of portraying Alaska National Guard commander Col. Scott Boyer, based on real-life hero Tom Carroll.

At the film’s press day, the co-stars talked about how playing characters based on real people inspired their performances, that whale meat doesn’t actually taste like chicken, how they dealt with spending so much time in such cold temperatures, and how impressed they both were with the challenges that director Ken Kwapis took on with this film. Check out what they had to say after the jump:

Big Miracle (opening in theaters on February 3^rd) is inspired by the incredible true story of a family of majestic gray whales trapped by rapidly forming ice in the Arctic Circle, and how an entire Alaskan community fought to save them, with the help of rival world superpowers. Animal lover and outspoken environmentalist Rachel Kramer (Drew Barrymore) is made aware of the harrowing situation when her small-town news reporter ex-boyfriend Adam Carlson (John Krasinski) makes a report that ends up going global. Soon, everyone from an oil tycoon to heads of state to ambitious journalists descend upon Barrow, Alaska, in order to unite and free the whales in time.

At the film’s press day, co-stars Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski talked about how unbelievable and impossible this moving true story seemed, reuniting with director Ken Kwapis, and what they loved about working with each other. Barrymore also talked about staying positive in a business that it’s so easy to become cynical in, while Krasinski talked about his desire to direct again and the currently untitled project he’s developing with Matt Damon, for Gus Van Sant to direct. Check out what they had to say after the jump.

Universal has released the first trailer for Ken Kwapis’ feel-good whale-rescue movie Big Miracle.  Formerly titled “Everybody Loves Whales” (not a great title, but far more informative than the generic “Big Miracle”), the story is inspired by the true story of a group effort to get three gray whales back to the ocean after they’re trapped under ice from the Arctic Circle.  Combined with Dolphin Tale and Shark Night, it looks like people are ready to care about sea life again.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer.  The film stars Drew Barrymore, John Krasinski, Kristen Bell, Dermot Mulroney, Tim Blake Nelson, Stephen Root, and Ted Danson.  Big Miracle opens February 3, 2012.

Earlier this year, we posted the first synopses for a few of Universal Pictures’ films slated for release next year. Today, we’ve got a few more synopses to share with you from some the studio’s upcoming slate. Included is Oliver Stone’s drug-smuggling drama Savages, the 3D animated feature Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, and the Knocked Up spinoff Untitled Judd Apatow Comedy. Additionally, we have a new synopsis and a title change for Big Miracle, the Drew Barrymore-starred family film that was formerly titled Everybody Loves Whales.

Hit the jump for a rundown of the cast and synopsis for each film. Big Miracle opens February 3, 2012, Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax opens March 2, 2012, Savages opens September 28, 2012, and Untitled Judd Apatow Comedy opens December 21, 2012.

Though NBC still has a thriving series in The Office (at least until Steve Carell leaves the show), the network, perhaps sensing an impending close to the breakout American adaptation of Ricky Gervais’ original BBC program, has decided to outsource the workplace comedy. NBC’s new series Outsourced takes Todd (Ben Rappaport) a recently trained Midwestern call center manager, and tosses him over to Mumbai, India. Why? Because their “right-sizing” their jobs to an outsourced call center for Mid America Novelties, a company who sells all the stupid novelty shit normally found at Wal-Mart (i.e. a singing deer head that sings Sweet Home Alabama). Unfortunately the level of hilarity in the new show is about as lowbrow and torturous as the same novelty items the fictional call center is attempting to sell.

In typical call center fashion, If you’d like to know more, click “Continue Reading” and our review will be with you shortly.

Kristen Bell is in negotiations to join John Krasinski and Drew Barrymore in the upcoming Universal film, Whales. Directed by Ken Kwapis (He’s Just Not That Into You), Whales tells the story of a reporter (Krasinski) and a Greenpeace volunteer (Barrymore) who try to save trapped gray whales under the arctic circle in 1988.  The story is based on Tom Rose’s nonfiction book Freeing the Whales: How the Media Created the World’s Greatest Non-Event.  According to THR, Bell will play a LA reporter striving for fame who thinks her looks are her greatest asset.

The actress was last seen in When in Rome and will next be seen co-starring with Betty White and Sigourney Weaver in You Again, which will hit theaters this September.

I wasn’t aware it was the mid-90s, but apparently the comic strip Dilbert still has audience appeal.  According to Pajiba, director Ken Kwapis (She’s Just Not That Into You) is attached to helm a live-action version of the beleaguered cubical drone.  For those who don’t know, Dilbert was created by Scott Adams, and is about an office worker and his fellow employees who deal with their idiot boss and other workplace indignities and stupidities.  It’s designed to cause people who are stuck in cubicle jobs they hate to exclaim, “It’s funny because it’s true!”

Kwapis is a reasonable choice for the material seeing as he’s twelve episodes of NBC’s The Office.  Dilbert was previously adapted into an animated cartoon that no one watched.  It will be interesting to see if the live-action adaptation will focus solely on the workplace comedy or if it will bring in some of the oddball elements like Dogbert, Ratbert, and/or Catbert.

John Krasinski and Drew Barrymore are set to star in director Ken Kwapis’ (License to Wed) Whales.  Universal Pictures hopes to shoot this fall – depending on Krasinski’s Office schedule.  The movie is based on a real event from 1988 when a trio of California gray whales got trapped under the ice in the Arctic Circle.  Deadline says:

Krasinski will play a small town newspaper reporter who breaks the story. Barrymore plays a Greenpeace activist, and they turn the potential tragedy into an international story. The incident created a temporary Cold War thaw as President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev found a common cause. They interceded to save the whales.

Since certain countries hunt whales and the magnificent creatures are still threatened (how quickly everyone forgot what Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home taught us), I’m on board with any movie that might help save some of them in the future.  Even if Ken Kwapis is directing it.