Brittany Murphy

EXCLUSIVE: Cillian Murphy jas joined the cast of In The Heart Of The Sea, the Ron Howard-directed adaptation of the Nathaniel Philbrick book for Warner Bros and Village Roadshow Pictures. Brian Grazer is producing with Joe Roth, Paula Weinstein and William Ward, with Palak Patel exec producing. Murphy will play Matthew Joy, second mate on the whale ship Essex. Citing reports of cannibals in the Society Islands, Joy and first mate Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth) convince first time Captain Pollard (Benjamin Walker) to sail to South America after an enraged sperm whale rams and sinks the Essex, leaving 21 crew members adrift in small boats, 3,000 miles from land. The film begins shooting around London in mid-September. Murphy is currently at work on Wally Pfister’s Transcendence with Johnny Depp in New Mexico. He wrapped Cry/Fly, an indie opposite Jennifer Connelly and Mélanie Laurent and this fall stars in Peak Blinders, a six-part miniseries for the BBC about the Shelby gang in 1920s Birmingham. He’ll next be seen in Broken, the British Independent Film Award-winning drama he stars in with Tim Roth, with Film Movement releasing in July in the U.S. Murphy is repped by CAA, the Lisa Richards Agency, Lou Coulson Associates and attorney David Weber.

NBC has ordered hourlong holiday musical special How Murray Saved Christmas from The Simpsons‘ writer/producer Mike Reiss. It’s scheduled to air in December 2014. Based on Reiss’ best-selling children’s book of the same name, the story centers on cranky deli owner Murray Kleiner, who is forced to fill in for Santa one Christmas and does a weirdly wonderful job. Walter Murphy (Ted, Family Guy) will compose the music of the special, produced by Universal TV. Rough Draft Animation will serve as the animation studio. Reiss has worked on The Simpsons since the show’s inception, at one point serving as exec producer/co-showrunner. His feature credits include The Simpsons Movie and Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaur.