Drew Barrymore to Star in Universal's Everybody Loves Whales Directed by Ken Kwapis

Hot off winning a Golden Globe for HBO's Grey Gardens, Drew Barrymore is going back to the big screen. The actress is eying the role of a Greenpeace activist for Everybody Loves Whales, a Universal film following real-life events in 1988 when a group of whales got trapped under ice in the Arctic Circle. But this isn't just an environmental film — the incident also took a political turn, helping ease relations between the US and Soviets when President Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev lent their power to help free Willy.

Ken Kwapis, who teamed with Barrymore for He's Just Not That Into You, is on board to direct Whales, which has me curious about the audience they're targeting. Is it a family film? A drama? Is Barrymore going to fall in love with an activist on an iceberg, only to have him never call? One thing's for sure — this news seems pretty untimely given the recent SeaWorld headlines. Perhaps they should rethink that title for now.