Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell And Joel Edgerton Lead Cast Of Ron Howard's Thai Caves Rescue Film 'Thirteen Lives'

Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell and Joel Edgerton have boarded the cast of 'Thirteen Lives'.

The trio will star in Ron Howard's new film, which tells the story of the Than Luang cave rescue in 2018.

The plot centres on the international rescue effort to save a boys football team who became trapped in a cave in Thailand after it was flooded by heavy rain. The rescue made headlines across the globe as all 12 boys, as well as their coach, were saved.

Viggo, Colin and Joel will star as rescuers Richard Stanton, John Volanthen and Dr. Richard Harris respectively.

Stanton specalises in rescues through the Cave Rescue Organisation and the British Cave Rescue Council. Volanthen is a veteran cave diver who specialises in cave exploration and underwater rescue. Harris is an anesthetist and cave diver with over 30 years of experience.

The supporting cast includes Weir Sukollawat as former Thai Navy SEAL Saman Kunan; Thiraphat Sajakul as Anand, a Thai Navy SEAL instrumental in the rescue effort; Sahajak Boonthanakit as the Chiang Rai province acting-governor Narongsak Osatanakorn; Vithaya Pansringarm as General Anuphond; Teeradon 'James' Supapunpinyo as the boys' coach 'Ek' Ekkaphon Chanthawong; Nophand Boonyai as groundwater expert Thanet Natisri.

The ensemble also includes Tom Bateman, Paul Gleeson and Lewis Fitz-Gerald. The latter plays British rescue worker and diver Vernon Unsworth who would later file a defamation suit against Tesla founder Elon Musk.

Production on the project is set to begin this month with filming taking place in both Thailand and Australia.

Ron serves as a producer on the project along with Brian Grazer and Karen Lunder for Imagine Entertainment, P.J. van Sandwijk of Storyteller Productions and Gabrielle Tana for the Magnolia Mae banner.

The script will be penned by Gladiator writer William Nicholson and sources suggest the flick has similarities to Ron's 1995 movie Apollo 13, which earned nine Oscar nominations.

Thirteen Lives is not the only project about the cave rescue in the works with Crazy Rich Asians filmmaker Jon M Chu overseeing a Netflix series focusing on the kids that were saved.

Photos: TPG News/Click Photos