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Movies & TV

28th Jun 2022

WATCH: Colin Farrell could be up for an Oscar in true-life thriller Thirteen Lives

Rory Cashin

The movie received the best review scores in the production company’s history.

Is it too early to be talking about 2023 Oscar front runners? Probably, but here we are.

Thirteen Lives tells the true story behind the events of the 2018 cave rescue in Thailand which saw a junior football team and their coach trapped inside a collapsed and flooded cave system for 18 days.

The movie will focus on John Volanthen (played by Colin Farrell), Richard Stanton (Viggo Mortensen) and Richard Harris (Joel Edgerton), the professional cave divers at the front of the rescue, and the great lengths they went to in order to keep casualties to a minimum.

Ron Howard has directed the movie, and he certainly knows a thing or two about how to adapt real-life stories into thrilling cinematic experiences, following the likes of Apollo 13, Rush and Frost/Nixon.

Additionally, screenwriter William Nicholson has some exceptional experience in this genre, having provided the scripts for Everest and Unbroken.

The movie was originally due for release in cinemas in April this year, but following the buy-out of MGM by Amazon Prime Video, the release date was pushed back. The other reason for the release date change was that following early test screenings, the movie received the highest scores from audiences in the entire history of MGM.

Could this mean potential Oscar gold for our own Colin Farrell? We won’t have long to wait and find out…

Thirteen Lives will have a selected cinematic release on Friday, 29 July, before launching on Amazon Prime Video on Friday, 5 August.

Clip via Thirteen Lives