Tom Vaughan to Helm 'The Log From the Sea of Cortez' (Exclusive)

MEXICO CITY – Tom Vaughan (What Happens in Vegas) is slated to direct The Log From the Sea of Cortez, a docu-fiction hybrid based on the John Steinbeck book of the same name.

Produced by New York-based Sardine Boat Pictures, the shingle of Emmy-winning producer Robert Kanter (Voices of the Children), and Mexico's Elite Studios MPC, the film chronicles a six-week sea journey that Steinbeck made with marine biologist and friend Ed Ricketts in 1940.

Kanter, who worked with Paul Newman and Gregory Peck, is reaching out to A-list Hollywood talent to narrate the voyage set in Mexico's wildlife-rich Sea of Cortez.

Shooting in Mexico may begin as early as March, depending on weather conditions and Vaughan's schedule.

The Log From the Sea of Cortez is one of Steinbeck's lesser-known books, and it's the 18th title by the Nobel Prize laureate to get a film adaptation.

In a director's statement, Vaughan said the modern expedition will retrace the route taken by a 76-foot fishing boat, and will provide a new account of the state of the ecosystem around Baja California and throughout the Sea of Cortez.

"I want to make a stunning visual record of the Gulf and its flora and fauna, its peoples and landscapes, to show it at its most magnificent and beautiful," he said.

Kanter has produced more than ten documentaries in Mexico. He says the film will depict a part of Mexico that doesn't get much attention these days, but that was once dubbed "the world's aquarium" by famed oceanographer Jacques Cousteau.

"I think it's important to show that there's more to Mexico than a bunch of drug wars around the border," he said.