Just two months before it was set to hit theaters, Warner Bros. has pushed the release of its true story adaptation In the Heart of the Sea from March 13, 2015 to December 11, 2015, putting it in the heart of awards season contention. Surprisingly, In the Heart of the Sea has the December 11, 2015 date all to itself, although it comes one week after Universal's horror-comedy Krampus and one week before Universal's Sisters and Disney's highly-anticipated Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The studio has also pushed its thriller Run All Night from April 17, 2015 to March 13, 2015.

In the Heart of the Sea is based on Nathaniel Philbrick's book of the same name, which recounts the real-life maritime disaster that would inspire Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. But that told only half the story. In the winter of 1820, the New England whaling ship Essex was assaulted by something no one could believe: a whale of mammoth size and will, and an almost human sense of vengeance. In the Heart of the Sea reveals the encounter's harrowing aftermath, as the ship's surviving crew is pushed to their limits and forced to do the unthinkable to stay alive. Braving storms, starvation, panic and despair, the men will call into question their deepest beliefs, from the value of their lives to the morality of their trade, as their captain searches for direction on the open sea and his first mate still seeks to bring the great whale down.

Chris Hemsworth stars alongside Cillian Murphy, Michelle Fairley, Charlotte Riley, Brendan Gleeson, Ben Whishaw and Benjamin Walker, under the direction of Ron Howard. We'll have to wait almost a full year to see if this release date shift pays off in the form of awards season consideration for In the Heart of the Sea. Run All Night will now go up against Disney's Cinderella and Paramount's Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension on March 13, 2015.