In 2018, the world waited for 12 boys and their soccer coach to be rescued from a flooded Thailand cave. The project is entitled Thirteen Lives and Ron Howard will direct a large international cast playing the heroic rescuers who took part in the dangerous operation that cost one rescuer his life. All the boys, and the coach, were saved before floodwaters completely filled the caves.
Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, and Joel Edgerton will star with Weir Sukollawat (Malila), Thiraphat Sajakul (The Serpent), Sahajak Boonthanakit (The Serpent), Vithaya Pansringarm (The Prey), Teeradon “James” Supapunpinyo (Bad Genius), Nophand Boonyai (Only God Forgives), Tom Bateman (Death on the Nile), Paul Gleeson (The Thin Red Line), and Lewis Fitz-Gerald (Pitch Black).
The film will shoot in Thailand and Australia, with the support of the Australian and Queensland Governments. Production begins later this March. The film is written by Gladiator‘s William Nicholson and produced by Brian Grazer.
The film tells the true story of the rescue of twelve boys and their soccer coach from a flooded, impenetrable Tham Luang Nang Non cave system in Thailand’s Chiang Rai Province. Thai families, the government, and a community of farmers and neighbours worked with international volunteers to rescue the team. Among the volunteers were British cave divers John Volanthen, Richard Stanton, Jason Mallinson, Chris Jewell, Josh Bratchley, Connor Roe, and Vernon Unsworth; Australian cave diver Dr. Richard Harris and Thai native Thanet Natisri. The 18-day ordeal made headlines around the world.
