It’s not completely common to see acclaimed documentary filmmakers become attached to narrative action films or thrillers. But in the case of filmmakers Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, their Oscar-winning doc, “Free Solo,” might have been the most intense action-thriller of 2018. And it appears that the duo has found the project that will help them make the leap to scripted features.
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According to Deadline, directors Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi have signed on with Universal to helm a film based on the real-life Tham Luang cave rescue in Thailand. As you may already know, the cave rescue garnered massive global headlines, as a boys soccer team and their coach were trapped 1,000 meters below the surface after a monsoon flooded a cave they were exploring. Eventually, the boys were saved, but not before one rescuer died and others were severely injured.
Wes Tooke, the screenwriter behind the recent action film “Midway” and the sci-fi series “Colony,” is writing the script for the film. The Thai cave rescue film is produced by Dana Brunetti and Matt DelPiano, a duo that produced the ripped-from-the-headlines acclaimed film “Captain Phillips.”
This isn’t the first scripted project that Chin and Vasarhelyi have found themselves attached to. The report doesn’t explain what might happen to the previously-announced Netflix heist film the duo were attached to that is expected to star Jake Gyllenhaal. It’s unclear if that Netflix film is delayed or defunct. We’ll have to wait and see which film Chin and Vasarhelyi work on first.
There’s no release date set for this new Universal project.