Zeman: Grenier’s 52 is not Free Willy

Joshua Zeman’s new documentary with Adrian Grenier embraces “the reality of the new”.

The Cropsey director and the Entourage actor are teaming up with the hopes of producing 52: The Search for the Loneliest Whale, having launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for the film last month.

And forthcoming feature 52 is unlike some of its predecessors, as creatures of the ocean are viewed from an entirely contemporary perspective.

“Jaws, Free Willy I think those are in the past; The Cove, Blackfish I think that's where our mental state is with regards to movies, especially whale movies, you know, which is good because now we're looking at movies outside the typical Hollywood context,” Josh told Cover Media. “So – and it's really interesting when you look at the old movies and then when you think about the reality of ‘the new’.

“What I mean by that is I just found out yesterday that Peter Benchley, the guy who wrote Jaws, felt so bad about the terror that he had created against sharks that he became a huge conservationist because of it. And now, there's like something called the [Peter Benchley Ocean Award], which is a conservation award, a marine mammal conservation award, so you know we're really now starting to get down – drill down into what it really all means.”

Kickstarter fund Help Us Find 52, the Lonely Whale is raising money to finance documentary, 52: The Search for the Loneliest Whale.

The film is dedicated to the research of late bio-acoustian William Watkins. After the US Navy discovered a strange 52 hertz frequency on underwater microphones used to detect enemy submarines, he confirmed the sound belonged to a lone whale calling out on a frequency others of his species could not recognise. Until William’s death in 2004, he dedicated his life’s work to tracking down the lonely whale, who he lovingly dubbed ‘52’.