Editor’s note: Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series debuts and celebrates the screenplays of films that will appear in this year’s film awards race.
On June 23, 2018, a young Thai soccer team and their coach were trapped in a cave when an early monsoon hit. Director Ron Howard was moved by the harrowing 18-day ordeal to save her, and decided to tell the story on film.
“I really felt like this is a movie for now,” Howard said during a panel for the Amazon Studios film at the Deadlines Contenders Film: Los Angeles event. “I thought it would be a visual lesson about what’s possible, that you can break down those cultural barriers and make something truly remarkable happen. If you tried to write it, no one would ever believe it, and yet it happened.”
Written by William Nicholson, Thirteen lives tells the story of 12 boys and their coach exploring Tham Luang Cave when an early monsoon hits them and traps them in a flooded cave system. As all of Thailand rallies to help, a group of the world’s top divers are deployed to traverse miles of dangerous cave networks, but they soon find that finding the boys is only half the battle. The film stars Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton and Tom Bateman as rescue divers.
Howard shot the film in Australia and Thailand, with production designer Molly Hughes responsible for recreating the cave systems in a way that could be filmed. The actors surprised Howard when they insisted on doing the dives themselves instead of stunt doubles.
“I thought for safety and production reasons they shouldn’t do it if there’s no way they can make it fit,” Howard said, “but they insisted. And once we found that they were skilled enough to do it safely… They just showed up and you know, every hour that they weren’t talking on camera, they dropped in, and that made all the difference in they made the world.”
Click below to read the screenplay by Nicholson, a two-time Academy Award nominee for writing the screenplays for Ridley Scott gladiator and shadow lands.
Writer: Ryan Fleming
Source: Deadline
Bernice Bonaparte is an author and entertainment journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a passion for pop culture and a talent for staying up-to-date on the latest entertainment news, Bernice has become a trusted source for information on the entertainment industry.
