Martin Sheen has landed a whale of a role…

The 73-year-old half-Spanish actor has signed on to star in the Animal Planet’s first scripted project: Revenge of the Whale.

Sheen will portray Thomas Nickerson in the two-hour television movie based on the story that inspired Moby Dick.

In the project, Sheen’s character will tell the story about his life as a cabin boy on the ill-fated voyage of the whaling ship The Essex.

The movie is a co-production with the BBC and reimagines what happened when the most hunted sea creature finally turned on its killers and fought back.