It hasn’t even been 24 hours since rescuers pulled the last boy of the trapped Wild Boars junior soccer team from Thailand’s Tham Luang Cave — but there’s already talk of immortalizing their incredible survival and rescue story on the silver screen.
Pure Flix Entertainment, an Arizona-based Christian film studio, said it’s seeking the movie rights to the harrowing mission to rescue the soccer team and their 25-year-old coach from the flooded cave.
“The bravery and heroism I’ve witnessed is incredibly inspiring, so, yes, this will be a movie for us,” Pure Flix co-founder and CEO Michael Scott, who is partly based in Thailand, told the Hollywood Reporter of the studio’s intentions.
No one will likely be surprised by the studio’s swift interest. Social media has been abuzz for days with chatter about the inevitable “Thailand Cave Rescue: The Movie.”
Pure Flix’s co-founder David White told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that the studio had already started talking to actors, writers and investors about the potential film.
He said Scott has also been in Chiang Rai for several days to help with the mission and to interview divers and other rescue workers at the scene.
“This was truly a team effort involving Brits, Aussies, Americans and Thais, and the divers told us incredible stories,” Scott told the Reporter. “They had less than five meters’ visibility, fought harsh currents and used a buddy system of two divers for each boy rescued. It was a monumental effort.”
Scott said his wife was a friend of volunteer rescue diver Saman Kunan, the former Thai navy SEAL who died last week after falling unconscious while placing oxygen tanks deep inside the cave. The film would honor Kunan and the hundreds of rescue workers and volunteers who risked their lives and selflessly gave their time to helping the stranded boys, Scott said.
Pure Flix is known for its faith-based movies, including the “God’s Not Dead” series and “The Case for Christ.” Scott told the Reporter, however, that “it’s not necessary to make this a Christian film, just an inspirational one.”
The Journal noted that the story of the boys’ entrapment and rescue will likely be retold in other media like TV and books in the coming months. At least one publisher told the paper that she’d be interested in reading a manuscript that includes details about the boys’ coach, a former monk who reportedly taught the children meditation in the cave and gave up his limited supply of food and water so they could have more.
Later this week, the Discovery Channel will be airing a one-hour documentary chronicling the team’s weekslong ordeal: “Operation Thai Cave Rescue” premieres at 10 p.m. ET/PT on July 13.