Ron Howard’s Survival Biopic Thirteen Lives Sets Late 2022 Release Date

January 25, 2022

According to Deadline, MGM has changed the release date for Ron Howard’s forthcoming biographical film Thirteen Lives, centering around the compelling 2018 Thai cave rescue story. Originally slated for an April 15, 2022 release, the survival drama has now been pushed back to seven months and is now scheduled to arrive in theaters on November 18, 2022.

The outlet notes that the decision to delay the film’s release comes after it reportedly earned the best test scores in MGM history. Because of this, the studio has decided to enter the film into the awards season.

Its new theatrical release will pit Thirteen Lives directly against two competitors including Sony Pictures’ live-action musical comedy Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile starring Javier Bardem, Winslow Fegley, and Constance Wu and biographical drama She Said starring Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan.

The film will star Viggo Mortensen (The Lord of the Rings franchise), Colin Farrell (The Batman), Joel Edgerton (Boy Erased), Weir Sukollawat (Malila), Thiraphat Sajakul (The Serpent), Sahajak Boonthanakit (The Serpent), Vithaya Pansringarm (The Prey), Teeradon “James” Supapunpinyo (Bad Genius), Nophand Boonyai (Only God Forgives), Tom Bateman (Death on the Nile), Paul Gleeson (The Thin Red Line), and Lewis Fitz-Gerald (Pitch Black).

It will center around the true story of the intense and difficult rescue mission of the Wild Boars soccer team, consists of 12 boys aged 11-16 and their coach, as they got unfortunately trapped in a flooded, impenetrable cave system of the Tham Luang Cave in Thailand in 2018. They managed to survived for 18 long days before being miraculously rescued by a brave group of divers. The rescue mission of the boys was reported and televised across the world which led to millions of people anticipating news updates regarding the rescue.

Thirteen Lives is directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Ron Howard from a screenplay written by Oscar nominee William Nicholson. It is produced by Howard, Brian Grazer, Karen Lunder of Imagine Entertainment, P.J. van Sandwijk of of Storyteller Productions and Gabrielle Tana of Magnolia Mae.