Two movies on cave rescue saga in the works

LOS ANGELES: The Thai cave rescue will be the subject of not one, but two competing movies.

Now You See Me 2 director Jon M. Chu and Ivanhoe Pictures are teaming up on a movie about the rescue operation, a day after Pure Flix Entertainment announced that it was seeking the movie rights to the mission.

Chu last partnered with Ivanhoe in directing the upcoming romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians.

Ivanhoe, an SK Global company, is currently in talks with the most senior officials in Thailand, both on provincial and national levels, about the rescue project.

The company is also in talks with multiple studios that have shown interest in the project.

Chu signalled that he was working on the project on Wednesday with a tweet, which appeared to slam Pure Flix’s efforts.

“I refuse to let Hollywood whitewash out the Thai Cave rescue story! No way. Not on our watch,” he wrote.

“That won’t happen or we’ll give them hell. There’s a beautiful story about human beings saving other human beings. So anyone thinking abt the story better approach it right and respectfully.”

Pure Flix is behind such faithbased films as the God’s Not Dead

movies, Same Kind of Different as Me, Woodlawn, The Case for Christ,

and Do You Believe?

Pure Flix said its project would focus on the inspirational aspects of the story.

Ivanhoe Pictures and its sister company SKE develop international and local language pictures for global audiences in the United States, India, Taiwan, South Korea, and Latin America.

Besides Crazy Rich Asians, their upcoming projects include the three-part Indian horror series Ghoul – premiering Aug 24 on Netflix – and migrant drama film La Caja, developed in partnership with Mexico City-based Lucia Films.

Chu also directed four of the Step Up movies.

He is repped by UTA and Artists First. — Reuters