LOS ANGELES? - Tim Blake Nelson has joined John Krasinski and Drew Barrymore in "Everybody Loves Whales."

Set in Cold War-era 1988, the Working Title/Universal project tells the true story of a small-town news reporter (Krasinski) and a Greenpeace volunteer (Barrymore) who enlist the rival superpowers to save three majestic gray whales trapped under the ice of the Arctic Circle.

Ken Kwapis is attached to direct "Whales," which is based on Tom Rose's nonfiction book "Freeing the Whales: How the Media Created the World's Greatest Non-Event."

Nelson will play a wildlife expert who works in the wildlife-management office. Kristen Bell also is in the cast of the movie, which shoots in the fall.