Companies try to get the rights to make a film about Thailand boys cave story...

camarade

Active member
According to this article (in Swedish), you can probably translate it.

"Hollywood is ready to tell the story and two production companies seek the rights to dramatize the course of events."

What? How does that even work? Who would have the "rights" to a real event in the first place? That's... very confusing. On so many levels.
 
I'm not sure it's that confusing...

I'm guessing they're trying to get exclusive deals with some of the involved people; exclusivity they're ready to pay for.

But as you say, there is obviously nothing stopping anyone from doing their own documentary based on facts and unsigned individuals.
 
The translation is correct, and I agree that seeking the rights to make a movie based on real events seems strange. But if they insist I can grant them the rights for the right price. :)
 
We know a fair amount about what the rescuers did, but we don't know much about the kids' (or rescuers') background, the kids' thoughts and actions while they were in the cave, the BTS action, and all that. If you want to stretch the story out to 1-2 hours or more, it'd be good to get that perspective, have the people sit for interviews, and lock out competitors from doing in-depth first-person stories.
 
A narrative film "based on true facts" is still a work of fiction. A screenwriter will have to write a entertaining script and events will have to be "tweaked" to create a film that works. Producers will insist upon changes ostensibly to improve the film, but possibly taking some parts of film a bit further from actual events that transpired. That conceivably could give someone grounds for a lawsuit. The article linked below explains it better than I can since I'm not even a TV lawyer.

On a separate note, I have met documentary filmmakers who have negotiated life rights with the subjects in their films in anticipation of a future narrative film. They didn't expect to make much on the doc but wanted to make sure they also got a check if Spielberg came calling one day.

https://www.marklitwak.com/purchasing-life-story-rights.html
 
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