Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander together in The Light Between Oceans: Let's dive in

Michael Fassbender as Tom Sherbourne in The Light Between Oceans

The Light Between Oceans, one of the top ten books I can't wait to see onscreen for 2015, is still months away but I was tooling around online and found some images from the shoot that get me salivating. That's Michael Fassbender above as Tom Sherbourne, the lighthouse keeper at the fictional Janus Rock, off the coast of south western Australia. Sherbourne, along with his wife Isabel (Alicia Vikander), take in a baby they rescue when her father dies in a boat wreck off the coast.

Alicia Vikander as Isabel will look very like she does asVera Brittain in Testament of Youth 

(above); both films take place in the time period just before, during and after World War I.

Rachel Weisz plays Hannah Roennfeldt in the film

The years-long New York Times bestseller soon to be a major motion picture from Spielberg’s Dreamworks that is “irresistible…seductive…with a high concept plot that keeps you riveted from the first page” (O, The Oprah Magazine).

After four harrowing years on the Western Front, Tom Sherbourne returns to Australia and takes a job as the lighthouse keeper on Janus Rock, nearly half a day’s journey from the coast. To this isolated island, where the supply boat comes once a season, Tom brings a young, bold, and loving wife, Isabel. Years later, after two miscarriages and one stillbirth, the grieving Isabel hears a baby’s cries on the wind. A boat has washed up onshore carrying a dead man and a living baby.

Tom, who keeps meticulous records and whose moral principles have withstood a horrific war, wants to report the man and infant immediately. But Isabel insists the baby is a “gift from God,” and against Tom’s judgment, they claim her as their own and name her Lucy. When she is two, Tom and Isabel return to the mainland and are reminded that there are other people in the world. Their choice has devastated one of them.

While much of the story is set in southwestern Australia most of the movie was shot in Tasmania and New Zealand. I'm hoping director Derek Gianfrance will capture the majesty of Maatsuyker island, Tasmania (above) where Tom had his second posting as a lighthouse keeper.

He followed that with a stint on Maatsuyker, the wild island south of Tasmania where it rained most days of the year and the chickens blew into the sea during storms.

(p. 16)

The tarmac of this quaint street in Stanley, Tasmania was dressed with gravel to lend it the island's early 1900's authentic look. What a difference some sand makes!

The ship, The Windward Spirit plays a starring role in the production, 

ferrying supplies to the islanders. 

The Light Between Oceans was also shot at undisclosed locations in Marlborough and Otago, New Zealand.  I'll be creating an image gallery for the film and adding production stills as they're released.

I'm expecting the chemistry from this real-life couple to light up the screen, aren't you?

Sources: The Cultural Atlas of Australia, TheMercury.com,