For Gillespie, this is easily the biggest movie that the Australian commercials-director-turned-feature-filmmaker has ever helmed.

Den of Geek: What appealed to you about this story?

You werent familiar with it…

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Craig Gillespie: I was not.

It just turned up.

And my agent said, Hey, theres a script theyre interested in for you.

Its a sea rescue, a true story from the 50s.

I was like, I dont know.

But then I read it.

Scott Silver had written the draft I read.

Its on the ocean, and I grew up on the ocean since Im from Australia.

Ive just been around the ocean my whole life.

So it was incredibly visceral to me.

And its a true story, which is just astounding.

Beyond the script and the book, did you do more research into this?

I know that (Coast Guard crew members) Andy Fitzgerald and Mel Gouthro were still alive.

They were still alive.

I know the writers had met with them and talked to them.

And also, Bernies family and wife…they launch the story.

Its literally a true story of what happened with their romance.

She was an operator.

So all of that stuff is great.

We had replicas of the 36500.

We got to go out on the real 36500.

And we went on boats of that era in terms of tankers.

We shot on an actual World War 2 battleship, theSavoy, over there in Boston.

And Michael Corenblith, our production designer, did, I think, just an amazing job.

He got all the semantics.

Its amazing how these two boats broke up almost at the same time.

The reality was there were a bunch of these T3 tankers that were built quickly during World War 2.

And they were made with inferior steel.

They would split apart.

I think there was like a dozen of them over the decade that split apart.

Theyd glue them back together and send them out again.

Its what they would go out in.

There were six months of prep in this.

We had the physical effects guys who worked on the all thePiratesfilms.

Theyve worked on massive productions, with all that gimbal work.

So there was so much prep that, honestly, the actual shooting of it ran incredibly smoothly.

All of our crews were so good between Michael and everybody figuring things out.

I think the wave pool is just taxing on the guys because they are in that 36500.

Even though were not out in the ocean, its a wave pool.

That boat is bouncing around like crazy.

You know, different camera angles, different scenes.

Everybodys got to get their single shot.

It was just a real grind for them.

But we had a great first AD in Vincent Lascoumes.

It was amazing how smoothly it ran.

For me, the most nerve-racking thing is always capturing the performance.

There are so many tight shots of Ben and Chris.

Ben told me that he liked that it was a very sparse script.

So much was just them looking back and forth at each other.

Ben, I loved his performance.

Hes like, I dont even want to look at (Chris).

There was all this stealing glances or sideway glances.

I love that moment when Bernie is saying, We all live or we all die.

Ben doesnt look at him.

Hes looking away and he nods and he gets up.

Those choices as an actor…thats sort of the exhilarating part.

Those choices that I feel like they land emotionally.

Hes a very enigmatic character throughout the film.

Hes prickly, but hes right.

In those looks you see him grow to respect Bernie.

He certainly has disdain for him clearly.

You just see that evolve.

Its pretty amazing to do that without dialogue.

Any sequences that you got through and you were like, Wow.

That was easier than I thought it would be?

(Laughs) Im trying to think.

Literally, every day I approached it like I was in the 18thmile of a marathon.

Because youd get there…we had to wear rain gear and boots and everything.

And hes like, Every day is a big day.

(laughs)

But it was sort of one step at a time.

We just sort of worked our way through it.

Like, we got on the set of Chatham.

We had a stage for that.

And it was only four days.

But those four days were like being on vacation.

Youre not walking around in rain gear.

Wed be in T-shirts and just light stuff and not be wet and not far from the actor.

Is that a place you go to?

Does it come with time, experience, and seasoning?

It might just be my exterior.

And you would hit the ground kind of running.

So thats something I always take a stab at be aware of.

Youve done romantic comedy, horror, a sports drama, and now this.

Youve built an eclectic filmography so far.

What other genres do you want to tackle?

I honestly dont know.

Literally, I go from like…You know, I loveSkyfall.

You know, something thats as large or larger again.

Or I could go back and do something likeLars.

Ill see what turns up.

Its sort of hard to find good scripts.

Thats half the work.

You see the tone of it.

Thats sort of my barometer.

When I come across a script like that in whatever genre it is, Im on board.

I would like to get back to comedy a little more.

Find some dark comedy.

(laughs) And not be wet.

The Finest Hoursis out in theaters on Friday (January 29).