Movie producers plan rescue film

NEW YORK — The boys are out of the cave. Now Hollywood wants in.

The producers behind Christian films — such as God’s Not Dead — are already in Thailand with plans to develop a movie about the 18-day saga of the boys soccer team trapped in a flooded cave. Though the drama of headline-grabbing rescues often doesn’t carry over the big screen, Pure Flix Entertainment co-founder Michael Scott believes the story about the 12 boys and their 25-yearold coach is ripe for movie adaptation.

“We realized that this would make an incredibly inspiring movie,” Scott said Wednesday from Thailand. “Like a lot of people, we know there’s not a lot of positive news in the world today.”

Scott said he feels a personal connection with the story. His wife is Thai and he said he was spending the summer in Bangkok when the soccer team disappeared. Scott and fellow producer Adam Smith recently traveled to the area around the cave in the northern Thailand, and they have begun talking to some of the participants about their “life rights.”

But they also stressed that they aren’t yet pursuing most of the families of the boys, who on Wednesday were still recuperating in a hospital.

“For us it’s not a huge race,” Smith said. “It’s about making sure we get the authenticity right.”