Thirteen Lives

[Jellybean]

Back in 2018 the lives of a Thai football team and their coach hit the news headlines as the world’s news media descended on Thailand to follow their rescue from the Tham Luang cave network. A film by the director Ron Howard documents the story in a new film called Thirteen Lives which will be released in selected cinemas on July 29, 2022 and streaming on Prime Video on August 5th, 2022.

An extract from Wikipedia, a review by Stuart Jeffries of The Guardian and a report by Helen Bushby of BBC News is copied below together with the film trailer provided by YouTube.

12707


Thirteen Lives is an upcoming biographical survival film directed and produced by Ron Howard, from a screenplay written by William Nicholson. The film stars Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton and Tom Bateman.

Thirteen Lives is scheduled to be released in select cinemas on July 29, 2022, by United Artists Releasing, before streaming on Prime Video on August 5.

Premise
The film chronicles the events of the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue that saw a junior football team and their coach trapped in a cave for a period of 18 days.

Source: Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteen_Lives)



Ron Howard
Going underground: inside Ron Howard’s explosive movie about the Thai cave rescue

Viggo Mortensen plays a heroic firefighter in new movie Thirteen Lives, based on the dramatic 2018 rescue of 12 boys and their coach in Thailand. But the film isn’t simply a white-saviour narrative, as its director explains

Stuart Jeffries
Fri 22 Jul 2022 06.00 BST Last modified on Fri 22 Jul 2022 14.28 BST

One day, retired firefighter Rick Stanton got a phone call at his home in Coventry. It was Ron Howard. He had good news. He had cast someone who had been in Lord of the Rings to play Stanton in his new movie, Thirteen Lives. Stanton’s mind raced. Ian McKellen? Andy Serkis? Probably not Cate Blanchett. “When I found out it was Viggo Mortensen, I was very pleased,” says Stanton, eyes glinting. “I’d never really thought who would play me in a film, but he’d be up there.”

Stanton was one of five cavers (“I call myself a caver not a diver, and definitely not a spelunker because that’s American”) who rescued 12 boys of the Wild Boars football team and their coach from the Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand in June 2018. The boys, aged 11 to 16, had gone into the cave after football practice and got trapped by flood water. They survived for 18 days on an elevated rock two-and-a-half miles (4km) from the cave mouth, with hardly any food but sustained by meditation led by the 25-year-old coach, Ekaphol Chantawong, a former monk. And by hopes of rescue . . .

Source: The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/jul/22/ron-howard-viggo-mortensen-thirteen-lives-thai-cave-rescue-thailand?amp;amp;amp)



Thirteen Lives: Thai cave rescue actor Tom Bateman relives diving fears

By Helen Bushby
Entertainment and arts reporter
23 July 2022

"The cast definitely all felt fear at various times," says director Ron Howard, who's revealing how he shot the rescue of a Thai boys' football team from a flooded cave, for his latest film.

Thirteen Lives tells the story of the perilous real-life rescue of the boys and their coach, trapped deep inside the Tham Luang cave network after monsoon rains came early in 2018.

"A couple of the actors admitted later they had some trying moments - but nobody had to leave the tank and breathe into a brown paper bag," the double Oscar-winner tells the BBC.

The film stars Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton, Tom Bateman and Paul Gleeson as the divers, who guided the footballers along underwater spaces so narrow they could barely squeeze through . . .


For the full article see: BBC News (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-62213778)


https://youtu.be/R068Si4eb3Y

[Dodger]

Ron Howard is a great Producer, and the story-line certainly has enough substance...can't wait to see it.

[bkkmfj2648]

Did any of you see the National Geographic version of this film = "The Rescue"

It was excellent in my opinion - sitting on the edge of your seat full of anticipation.
I hope that this Ron Howard rendition, "Thirteen Lives" will be just as good or even better.

12708

[Patanawet]

I wonder if the film covers the treatment of one of the heroic rescuers by that evil creature Elon Musk?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50695593

[maump]

There is a one hour NOVA episode that covers the rescue, well done, no politics or excessive drama. watched it again last week by coincidence. had me on the edge of my seat cheering (again). you probably need PBS "passport" membership to see it.

https://www.amazon.com/NOVA-Thai-Cave-Rescue/dp/B07KZ8TPJZ
"Nova" Thai Cave Rescue (TV Episode 2018) - IMDb

[Dodger]

There is a one hour NOVA episode that covers the rescue, well done, no politics or excessive drama. watched it again last week by coincidence. had me on the edge of my seat cheering (again). you probably need PBS "passport" membership to see it.

You can watch it here on U-Tube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClrRr8euKz4

[Armando]

From the trailer, it looks like a really good movie. Anyone know when it will start to be shown in Thailand theatres? I'm sure it will be a lot better than the last documentary he produced 3 years ago titled Pavarotti. That movie about the great singer was merely a puff piece - like it had been paid for by his family and recording company.

[Oliver2]

The documentary about the rescue emphasised the collective efforts of the community to support the rescue operation. Local villagers contributed and supported it, sometimes at considerable cost. There is a tendency for mainstream movies to concentrate on a single hero....I hope the Thai villagers are given the respect they deserve.
I doubt that the satanic Musk will get his comeuppance. Anyone who can manufacture a malicious sexual angle to the heroism of the guys who risked their lives deserves to be condemned by a wide audience.
However, being very rich is often enough to ensure protection for such as he.

[a447]

Musk's offer of mini submarines was rejected as they were far too big to fit through the gaps and didn't even have provision for breathing apparatus!

Seems like it was just a publicity stunt. Fancy that!

[Oliver2]

Recommended. I was pleased it showed how the whole community joined together to save the children while giving due prominence to the courage of the divers. Wisely, in my view, it stayed clear of more than a passing reference to the role of the coach in leading the team into the cave.

[Captain Swing]

The boys and the coach sold the rights to their story to Netflix, so this movie was very limited in how much reference they could make to the team as individuals. I haven't seen this movie but apparently one of the boys is named "Chai" in it, which is not really the name of a team member. This film focuses on the divers because they participated in the making of it, and were presumably paid for their cooperation.

[Patanawet]

Musk's offer of mini submarines was rejected as they were far too big to fit through the gaps and didn't even have provision for breathing apparatus!

Seems like it was just a publicity stunt. Fancy that!
And ruined the life and reputation of one of the rescuers who had the gall to criticise the design of the sub.
He had a young looking Thai girlfriend/Wife (?) who was actually 40 years old.
What a vile person.

[francois]

A friend saw Thirteen Lives today (on TV) and said it was very good.

[maump]

Saw the movie on Amazon today. I enjoyed it, tear jerker. learned a few things over the NOVA film.
Clearly done from the point of view of the divers.

[Blueskytoday]

I saw previous VID made on UTUBE, the live story and rescue...no need for this movie...as the UTUBE story was long and covered all of it..I don't need to see actors re-creating this event...

[Captain Swing]

I saw previous VID made on UTUBE, the live story and rescue...no need for this movie...as the UTUBE story was long and covered all of it..I don't need to see actors re-creating this event...

I tend to agree. I often see comments on a documentary or news feature on any subject--"I hope somebody makes this into a movie"--and I don't understand it. Why do people prefer to see the story with fictional or composite characters, made-up dialogue, overly dramatized situations, rather than the factual story than can see in the documentary?

[Dodger]

I would like to see a fictional sequel to the movie where the boys never do escape the cave - and go on to enjoy life as "Caveboys". A Thai version of "Lord of the Rings".

Notably older in the sequel, the boys could be shown surviving cave-life completely naked - enjoying nonstop sex - without any desire whatsoever to be rescued.

Now that's a movie I would stand in line for.

[Oliver2]

The documentary was informative, the film entertainment. Room for both, in my view.

Anyway, it makes a change to see a film that isn't about superheroes or heists. And with no "love interest" either....one that can be appreciated by the over-forties!

[bkkguy]

I would like to see a fictional sequel to the movie where the boys never do escape the cave - and go on to enjoy life as "Caveboys". A Thai version of "Lord of the Rings".

Notably older in the sequel, the boys could be shown surviving cave-life completely naked - enjoying nonstop sex - without any desire whatsoever to be rescued.

a nice fantasy but let's hope it doesn't turn into a Thai Lord of the Flies - a group of schoolboys not in a cave but marooned on an island where "the behaviour of the majority degenerates into savagery" instead of porn

for nights when you have run out of little blue pills the William Golding book, the 1963 Peter Brook film (both about British schoolboys) and the 1990 Harry Hook film (about American schoolboys) are all worth a try if you haven't already indulged, or had the unexpected pleasure of having the book included in your school English lit reading list!

[Oliver2]

Wonderful book! Peter Brook's film is memorable, Harry Hook's has been forgotten.

[Captain Swing]

For a nice alternative to Lord of the Flies check out the true story of the Tonga Castaways, 6 Tongan schoolboys who were marooned alone on a deserted island for 15 months until rescued, by chance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongan_castaways
I think their story more closely resembles what would have happened to the Wild Boars. They survived, cooperated, coped and managed to thrive until found. They had long been given up for dead and their chance rescue was celebrated as a miracle in Tonga. Australians may be familiar with the story--it was widely reported and written about. In the US I never heard of it until I read the obituary of the man who found them a couple years ago. If it makes it more interesting, they were all naked when found, though, alas, there aren't any photos. (And, at the risk of sounding creepy, they weren't as cute as the Wild Boars).

[Dodger]

......Tonga Castaways, If it makes it more interesting, they were all naked when found,

Now we're talking!

[Dodger]

Lord of the Flies[/I] - a group of schoolboys not in a cave but marooned on an island where "the behaviour of the majority degenerates into savagery" instead of porn.

My fantasy's, regardless of the story-line, never include "savagery" and focus almost exclusively on erotic/sensual content, otherwise they would be considered "Nightmares".

No room for savagery in "Lords of the Cave"...just the constant sound of soft groans echoing in the hollow passageways.