Human tragedy is big business, in more ways than one. Studios practically leap out of their skin any time a disaster captures the global spotlight the way the recent Thai cave rescue did. When those Chilean miners were trapped a few years ago, movies were in development before anybody knew the end of their story. And now one of the multiple Thai cave rescue films has a director in place.
Deadline reports Tom Waller will direct The Cave, a project that was a hot property shopped around Toronto. Waller’s not a huge name but on the international scene he’s gained notoriety and awards for his films The Last Executioner and 2011’s Mindfulness and Murder. The Bangkok-born filmmaker should treat the story with all of the authenticity it deserves, so there shouldn’t be any fears of whitewashing.
The will tell the true story of the 12 young soccer players and their coach who became trapped in the Tham Luang cave when heavy rains flooded it. For 18 days and 24-hour news coverage, the world watched breathlessly during the complicated rescue effort, that was not guaranteed to work by any measure. Ultimately it was an international effort, including five Thai Navy Seals, who accomplished the feat.
So the race is on to see which of the six (!!!) films on the rescue gets to screens first. The highest-profile once has Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu attached, but we’ll see where that goes now that he’s even busier than he was before.
