Netflix, ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Producer Team Up for Thai Cave Rescue Series

By Peter White, Deadline
Published March 8, 2019, 9:14 a.m. ET

Netflix has partnered with Crazy Rich Asians producer SK Global on a mini-series about the Thai Cave rescue.

The SVOD service has boarded the project, which is now set up as a mini-series.

It will tell the story of the 12 young Thai soccer players and their 25- year-old coach, who were stuck in a cave complex near the Myanmar border. It will explore how the group ended up in the cave and the subsequent mobilization of rescue workers around the globe.

The project was announced by Thailand government spokesman Lt-General Werachon Sukondhapatipak at an event at Bangkok’s National Library on Thursday. “The series will be produced by Hollywood’s SK Global Entertainment, which has been granted lifetime rights to contact the 13 young members of the Wild Boars football team,” he said, adding that the boys and the coach will each be paid around $94,000 for their involvement.

“We can confirm that we are working on an original scripted miniseries with SKE Global and 13 Tham Luang Company Limited to bring the incredible story of the Thai cave rescue to audiences worldwide on Netflix,” the digital platform said in a statement.

It comes as SK Global bolsters its TV business with the hire of former Endemol Shine and Imagine exec Charlie Corwin, who is joining as co-CEO. It’s a move aimed at bolstering the TV auspices of the indie financier and producer, which has been looking to expand its worldwide production output in both film and TV in the wake of their success with global hits like Crazy Rich Asians.

SK Global — the merged combination of Ivanhoe Pictures, an international, local-language content company, and Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, an independent film finance and production entity — is now in production on multiple projects in China, India, Latin America, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, in addition to the U.S.