Ted Danson (Bored to Death) and Vinessa Shaw (Two Lovers) have joined the cast of Everybody Loves Whales.  The film will tell the story of a reporter (John Krasinski) and a Greenpeace volunteer (Drew Barrymore) who try to save trapped gray whales under the arctic circle in 1988.  The film will be directed by Ken Kwapis (He’s Just Not That Into You) and is based on Tom Rose’s nonfiction book Freeing the Whales: How the Media Created the World’s Greatest Non-Event.

THR reports that Danson will play “a win-at-all-costs oilman who has no interest in saving the mammals.” Meanwhile, Shaw will play a “White House staffer who wants the government to help the whales.”  Kristen Bell and Tim Blake Nelson were also previously cast in the film which starts shooting this month in Alaska.