(Los Angeles) With a cast mixing stars and local actors, including beginners, the American director Ron Howard presents in Thirteen Lives the cinematic version of the harrowing rescue of young footballers in Thailand, which had the world in suspense in 2018.
Posted at 1:42 p.m.
“I knew it would be an exciting challenge,” said Ron Howard during the presentation of the trailer for the film, which will be released on July 29 in the United States.
It’s “a very extreme take on my favorite genre of movies, the kind of movies that prove incredible endings don’t just exist in fiction,” he adds.
The film chronicles the dramatic rescue of 12 boys who, along with their coach, found themselves trapped in a cave in Thailand for just over two weeks.
Recreating the conditions of this intense event was also a physical and psychological challenge for the actors.
Colin Farrell, who plays diver John Volanthen, talks about how “terrifying” it can be to shoot underwater most of the time, even in a supervised setting.
The actor, who by his own admission can’t swim, underlined the “spirit of collaboration” that prevailed during filming, as well as the importance of paying tribute to the people who participated in the rescue operation – two people died, one of them months later.
“It was tough, but also an honor,” said Colin Farrell.
“And we were really aware of that. It was not for us to come as actors to play these British divers, who had come to save everyone and triumph. It was about being guided by our Thai brothers and sisters,” he says.
Ron Howard also stressed the importance of portraying the people of Chiang Rai province in northern Thailand.
The distribution therefore includes many local actors and has made sure that the teenagers are played by young people from the North, so that the language spoken is authentic.
“It’s not just an accent, but also the way of speaking, and it was crucial” to respect that, said the director, who collaborated with Vorakorn “Billy” Ruetaivanichkul for this purpose. film co-producer.
Mr. Ruetaivanichkul was particularly involved in preparing the young actors to put themselves in the shoes of the rescued teenagers.
” I asked them […] to imagine that they were in a cramped place, that they only had food and water for a few days, and that they were probably not going to get out of there quickly,” he said. -he explains.
The operation had already been the subject of a documentary, The Rescuereleased last year, which showed previously unseen scenes.
Thirteen Liveswhich also stars Viggo Mortensen, will be available for streaming in August, following its big-screen release.