The incredible rescue of the Wild Boars boys soccer team, which captivated the world in 2018, is the subject of the docudrama Thai Cave Rescue, the first trailer for which was just released by Netflix. Thai Cave Rescue was entirely shot in Thailand, and the trailer effectively conveys the boys’ fear as the cave filled with water and the scope of the rescue effort the international team faced as they fought against the clock and the elements. On September 22, a six-episode limited series will be available on Netflix in every country.
Thai Cave Rescue is co-directed by Thai hitmaker Baz Poonpiriya (One for the Road, Bad Genius), who also co-created the show with Dana Ledoux Miller (Designated Survivor, Narcos), and Thai-American director Kevin Tancharoen (The Brothers Sun, The Book of Boba Fett, Warrior). The project’s writers and co-showrunners are Gunn and Miller.
The sensational story is being tackled by a number of screen projects, including Hai Cave Rescue. Prior to its streaming debut on Amazon Prime Video in September, Ron Howard’s Hollywood version of Thirteen Lives, starring Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, and Joel Edgerton, had a constrained theatrical run in August. The Rescue, a documentary produced by Oscar winners Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, aired on National Geographic in 2021. The Cave, an independent film version, had its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival in 2019.
The Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin-directed National Geographic documentary “The Rescue” began screening at film festivals in September 2021 and has been accessible on the Disney+ streaming service since January of this year. It received a BAFTA nomination and used tens of thousands of hours of body-cam footage shot by the actual divers.
Even though the Netflix series is a fictionalised account of actual events, it might have a different kind of authenticity. Thai American Kevin Tancharoen (“The Brothers Sun,” “The Book of Boba Fett,” “Warrior”) and Thai director Nattawut “Baz” Poonpiriya (“One for the Road,” “Bad Genius”) were responsible for the film’s direction. The 12 young soccer players on the Wild Boars team have been given access to only one filmic version. At the real boys’ homes and Tham Luang itself, movies were shot.
