Ron Howard to direct Thai cave rescue movie

Ron Howard is set to direct a movie about the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue.

The Wild Boars soccer team made headline news around the world in June 2018 when they became trapped in the Tham Luang cave 1,000 metres below the surface for more than two weeks after heavy rain blocked them from exiting. All of the 12 boys, aged between 11 and 16, as well as their coach, were freed, although the rescue mission took the life of a retired Thai Navy SEAL.

According to Deadline, Howard will direct a mid-budget drama titled Thirteen Lives about the dramatic rescue from a screenplay written by William Nicholson, who previously wrote the scripts for Gladiator and Unbroken.

Sources who have read the screenplay told the publication that Thirteen Lives looks set to another to be another Apollo 13 for Howard as it will be a dramatic and thrilling film despite audiences knowing the outcome of the real-life event. The 1995 space drama starred Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, and Bill Paxton and documented the aborted lunar landing mission in 1970.

The Thirteen Lives package is being shopped around by CAA Media Finance and has received bids from several buyers.

Howard's project isn't the only one focused on the cave rescue. Free Solo filmmakers Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi are attached to make a movie for Universal, director Kevin Macdonald is working on a documentary for National Geographic, while Crazy Rich Asians helmer Jon M. Chu is developing a miniseries for Netflix.

A movie about the rescue, titled Nang Non, or The Cave, was made in Thailand and released in the country last year after a film festival run.