11 Jul – Strike while the iron is hot, piping hot in this case. Since early this month, people from around the globe have been monitoring on social media the rescue mission of a youth soccer team from a flooded Thai cave, soon they'll get to watch it all over again on the big screen. Just hours since their successful rescue yesterday, there are already news circulating that the incident is getting the Hollywood treatment. In fact, the project was already being mapped out before all the boys were safely out of the cave, according to news.com.au. American producers Michael Scott and Adam Smith had spent several days around the Tham Luang cave site during the mission, conducting preliminary interviews. Scott, managing partner of Pure Flix, shared his vision of turning it into a blockbuster with A-list stars in the cast. Co-producer Smith, when asked on whether their actions might be viewed as insensitive, replied, "There's going to be other production companies coming in so we have to act pretty quickly." Pure Flix is a production company based in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Los Angeles that focuses on faith-based movies, such as "God's Not Dead" and "Do You Believe?". The upcoming movie is said to be in the same vein as "The 33" and "Patriots Day".
"So often in the news, it's so dark and gloomy and this is something that everybody can watch and be inspired by," Scott also told USA Today. Scott is married to a Thai woman, who is a former classmate of Saman Kunan, the ex-Thai Navy SEAL who died early Friday after delivering oxygen tanks to the trapped boys. He plans to dedicate the movie to the late hero. The 12 young members of Thailand's Wild Boars soccer team and their soccer coach went missing on 23 June while exploring caves at a forest park. They were discovered alive 10 days later, trapped deep inside a flooded cave. After the discovery, Thai and foreign authorities and volunteers gathered at the site to help rescue the team of 13, who were all successfully taken out of the cave after more than 2 weeks trapped inside. (Photo source: Royal Thai Navy)