Movie plans already in the works
The jokes, groans and eye-rolls started on Twitter even before the announcement — replete with tongue-in-cheek casting predictions.
“How soon is too soon to start boycotting the Hollywood movie of the Thai cave rescue starring Mark Wahlberg?” — Linda Ge“The movie of the Thai boys trapped in the cave will star Matt Damon as all of the boys” — Ketan Joshi
Then, on Wednesday, it was announced. The story that captivated the world about a boys soccer team and their coach being trapped in a cave in Thailand is going to be a major motion picture. Pure Flix Entertainment, the Christian film studio known for the “God’s Not Dead” series, will produce it.
The announcement came the same day the last boy was rescued. The inevitable pushback was immediate, with writer and director Larry Charles tweeting:
“The Thai cave rescue reminds me of a post modern version of Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole. You’ve got Elon Musk grabbing attention with shameless self-promoting, trying to shill a new product AND a movie of the saga being announced before the kids are out of the hospital.”
Drudge Report tweeted, “Hollywood producers already on scene plotting Thai cave movie” — the emphasis naturally falling on “already.”
The speed with which an ongoing tragedy has been mined for intellectual property, as if it were an old Marvel comic book, might seem distasteful. But it isn’t a particularly new phenomenon.