Today, MGM released the first trailer and poster for its upcoming survival story “Thirteen Lives,” directed by Academy Award-winner Ron Howard, and starring Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, and Joel Edgerton. The film, opening in theaters on July 29 before landing on Amazon Prime Video on August 5, recounts the harrowing true story of the Thai soccer team trapped in Tham Luang Nang Non cave during a rain storm.
The trailer gives a tease of the intensity of the rescue along with the film’s supporting cast, comprised of Thai actors Pattrakorn Tungsupakul, Tui Thiraphat Sajakul, James Teeradon Supapunpinyo, Sahajak Boonthanakit, and Weir Sukollawat Kanaros. It also highlights the global interest the story provoked when it happened back in 2018.
In a special press conference preceding the trailer and poster reveal, Howard, cast members, and producers discussed the wide scope of the community effort in the rescue as well as the parents’ spiritual involvement.
“The epicenter of (the story) was the caves and the boys and the coach and the intensity and focus of that rescue,” he said. “Very cinematic and intense and suspenseful and I wanted to capture that. But there was incredible involvement in other places, people taking real risks, physical risks, emotional risks, as the stakes kept getting higher and higher – up on the mountain trying to divert the water, trying to keep the system going. The parents doing everything they could, on an emotional level, on a spiritual level, everything they could think about. The more I learned about the story, the more dimensional it could be.”
The official synopsis for the film follows:
Thirteen Lives recounts the incredible true story of the tremendous global effort to rescue a Thai soccer team who become trapped in the Tham Luang cave during an unexpected rainstorm. Faced with insurmountable odds, a team of the world’s most skilled and experienced divers – uniquely able to navigate the maze of flooded, narrow cave tunnels – join with Thai forces and more than 10,000 volunteers to attempt a harrowing rescue of the twelve boys and their coach. With impossibly high stakes and the entire world watching, the group embarks on their most challenging dive yet, showcasing the limitlessness of the human spirit in the process.
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