The Thai cave rescue incident was brought to the screen, Oscar-winning director Ron Howard talks about "13 Lives"
Reporter Maggie Ma reported from Los Angeles
The movie "Thirteen Lives" was adapted from the 2018 Thai cave rescue incident. ) recently released its first trailer. The film is directed by Ron Howard, the Oscar-winning director of "A Beautiful Mind", and stars famous movie stars Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell Farrell), Joel Edgerton (Joel Edgerton) and others starred in it, truly restoring this real event that affected the whole world and involved many countries in the rescue.
The story took place in the summer of 2018. Unfortunately, a Thai coach and 12 young men's football players were trapped in a cave after a flood. Within two weeks, more than 1,000 international rescuers from Thailand, the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Australia and other countries came to participate in the rescue operation. The rescue operation was difficult, requiring long periods of diving and groping. In the end, all 13 people were rescued, but one Thai commando also died. Last year, there was a documentary "Thailand Cave Rescue" (The Rescue) also told this story. "13 Lives" directed by Ron Howard restores this story in the form of a feature film and will be released in North American theaters on July 29.
The director and actors of the film also recently participated in an online press conference and talked about the difficult process of filming the film. News Express participated in this press conference. Ron Howard is well-known in the United States for his real-life and biographical films, especially those that show ordinary heroes and the truth, goodness and beauty of human nature. So it's not surprising that he would like this film. He said at the meeting: "In today's era when countries and ethnic groups are becoming more and more divided and conflicts are becoming more and more intensified, a story that can show the unity and concentration of rescue teams from multiple countries to complete a pioneering project is even more valuable. , and more worthy of everyone's attention. This movie mainly shows people that when everyone works together to do something, they can break down the barriers of nationality and culture, and incredible results often occur." Howard also said. He said that during the process of investigating the story, he discovered more touching details that many people may not have known about from the news before, making the story more humane.
Most of Ron Howard's previous movies took place in the United Kingdom and the United States, but this story takes place in Thailand. Therefore, the director received strong support from local diving professionals for the filming of this film, especially the many divers who participated in the rescue. He was personally on hand to guide the actors and help them understand diving expertise and the situation when the accident occurred, so that the entire filming could be as close to reality as possible.
Viggo Mortensen of "Lord of the Rings" fame is known in the industry for his love of taking on tough roles, and little can scare him. This time, he also received diving training during the epidemic. He said at the online press conference: "It is an honor to get this opportunity to play the role of a heroic rescuer. Although this is a movie, in fact, the entire filming process simulated real situations, which was also quite dangerous. Fortunately, there were real rescuers and divers following and guiding us throughout the process. We really didn’t dare to be sloppy at all and followed the instructions carefully.” Mortensen was very confident in his final learning results and gave him the confidence. The filming team was confident enough to complete the shoot. Colin Farrell, another actor who played the role of a diver, said: "I was very afraid of water before. This time I actually played the role of a diver. It is really the biggest challenge for me personally, but I admire these heroes very much." The rescuers also thanked the Thai workers for their assistance. "
Actor Joel Edgerton starred as a rescuer from Australia. He said that most of the rescue heroes did not know whether they could successfully rescue the children at the time, and they were probably on the point of no return.But in the face of many unknowns, these heroes still chose to take risks and made correct judgments based on their own experiences, so that the children could be rescued. This moved him very much and was the reason why he participated in this film.
The director mentioned that it was also very difficult for the workers behind the scenes to shoot such a movie. Everyone was soaked in water the whole time and was always wet. For film workers, this is also a once-in-a-lifetime challenge. He also thanked the local government and people for their strong support.
After the film is released in theaters on July 29, it will be available on Amazon Prime on August 5.
