Ron Howard celebrates the power of many in Thai cave rescue retelling

LONDON, July 18 (Reuters) – 4 years on from the dramatic rescue of a gaggle of 12 boys and their soccer coach from a collapse Thailand, their story has been informed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Ron Howard in “13 Lives”.

The boys, aged between 11 and 16, and their 25-year-old coach, have been exploring the Tham Luang collapse northern Thailand’s Chiang Rai in June 2018 when monsoon rains flooded the tunnels and trapped them underground.

They survived 9 days in {a partially} flooded chamber earlier than being found by two British divers, nevertheless it took Thailand’s elite navy SEALs and worldwide volunteers one other eight days to convey them to security.

“13 Lives” recreates the 17-day ordeal contained in the sprawling cave complicated and above the mountain masking it the place volunteers, engineers and troopers pumped thousands and thousands of litres of water out of the cave and drilled via rocks in search of gaps to succeed in the boys.

“It is gorgeous what was achieved. It’s not simply in regards to the heroic divers, , it truly is a complete group and a rustic and numerous international locations in the end collaborating and making one thing wonderful come true,” Howard informed Reuters on the movie’s London premiere on Monday.

“It’s a really up to date theme that we have to remind ourselves of, and that’s how highly effective we are able to all be internationally or on a group degree after we pull collectively.”

The movie stars American Viggo Mortensen and Eire’s Colin Farrell as British divers Rick Stanton and John Volanthen, with Australian actor Joel Edgerton taking up the position of Harry Harris, who was introduced on to assist when choices to save lots of the boys have been working out.

Thai actors and nonprofessionals have been solid in supporting roles and most of the younger boys enjoying the members of the “Wild Boar” soccer workforce had no earlier appearing expertise.

Stanton and Volanthen and members of the worldwide rescue dive workforce attended Monday’s occasion, praising Howard’s interpretation of the occasions.

“I believe it is good for individuals to know what occurred. It is not a documentary, nevertheless it’s just about true to life,” Stanton mentioned.

“13 Lives” shall be launched in choose U.S. and British cinemas on July 29 and launches globally on Amazon Prime Video on August 5.

(This story refiles to corrects typo in Eire in seventh paragraph)

Reporting by Hanna Rantala; Modifying by Stephen Coates

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