INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Thailand Rescue: Thai students smile as they hold pictures of 12 boys and a football coach (AFP)The jokes, groans and eye-rolls started on
Twitter even before the announcement - replete with tongue-in-cheek casting predictions."How soon is too soon to start boycotting the
Hollywood movie of the Thai cave rescue starring Mark Wahlberg"- Linda Ge"The movie of the Thai boys trapped in the cave will star Matt
Damon as all of the boys"- Ketan Joshi"Cave rescue is going to make an incredible movie, can't wait to see Scarlett Johansson inspire in her
role as 12 Thai boys."- djbThen, on Wednesday, it was actually announced
The story that captivated the world about a boys soccer team and their coach being trapped in a cave in Thailand is going to be a major
day the last boy was rescued
The inevitable pushback was immediate, with writer and director Larry Charles tweeting:"The Thai cave rescue reminds me of a post modern
version of Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole
You've got Elon Musk grabbing attention with shameless self-promoting, trying to shill a new product AND a movie of the saga being announced
before the kids are out of the hospital."Drudge Report tweeted, "Hollywood producers already on scene plotting Thai cave movie" - the
old Marvel comic book, might seem distasteful
But it isn't a particularly new phenomenon.- - -"Zero Dark Thirty" and "The Hurt Locker"One of the most striking recent examples is "Zero
Dark Thirty," Kathryn Bigelow's dramatization of United States government's hunt for and eventual killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden
forces killed bin Laden on May 2, 2011, in what President Barack Obama called "the most significant achievement to date in our nation's
effort to defeat al-Qaida." The movie hit theaters in December 2012, barely a year and a half later.That's a remarkable turnaround time
Bigelow, though, was no stranger to tackling fresh issues
She won six Oscars, including best director and best picture, for her 2008 movie "The Hurt Locker," which followed a U.S
bomb disposal team during the Iraq War
Though the movie was based on accounts of a journalist embedded in Iraq in 2004, it came out while the Iraq War was still underway."Patriots
Day" and "Stronger"The 2013 Boston marathon bombing, which killed three and injured hundreds more, was turned into two major, star-driven
films.First came "Patriots Day" in 2016
The Peter Berg movie depicts Mark Wahlberg as Boston Police Sgt
Tommy Saunders as he searches for the bombers in the attack's immediate aftermath.Though movies based on recent tragedies are often subject
to backlash, the reaction to "Patriots Day" was particularly fierce - especially in the Boston area
The movie, wrote Boston film critic Sean Burns, was "as disgraceful an exploitation of real-life tragedy as I've ever seen
Everyone involved in this movie should be ashamed of themselves."The Boston Globe's Ty Burr was slightly more forgiving, calling it "slickly
heartfelt" and "vaguely insulting."A year later, "Stronger" hit theaters
Rather than focus on the police response, the David Gordon Green told the story of Jeff Bauman (played by Jake Gyllenhaal), a man who lost
his legs in the bombing and was the subject of a famous photo from the day.This one was much more warmly received, perhaps because it was
It "rises on the power of its well-chosen ensemble to offer an emotionally resonant fact-based story that transcends inspirational drama
cliches," reads the critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes, where it earned a 92 percent "fresh" rating."United 93? and "World Trade
Center"The September 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the United States was, by far, the country's deadliest
Perhaps due to this wretched gravity, Hollywood waited a bit longer to cash in on the horror
But cash in it did, with a pair of back-to-back movies
"United 93? and "World Trade Center" were both released in 2006, within four months of each other.The first came in April, and as the title
suggests, told the story of United 93 - the hijacked plane heading toward Washington, D.C., that crashed in Pennsylvania after its
passengers attacked the hijackers
Paul Greengrass' account was met warmly by critics, but those connected to the actual event weren't as pleased."It was both excruciating and
beautiful at the same time," Alice Hoagland, whose son was on the flight, told the San Francisco Chronicle
After Marjorie Kase, who lost three friends in the 9/11 attacks, unexpectedly saw a trailer, she echoed others in telling the paper, "I
don't think the country is ready for this movie right now
We don't have enough perspective or hindsight on the matter."Just as "United 93? was coming out on DVD months later, Oliver Stone's account
of first responders was hitting theaters amid far more mixed reviews - many of which deemed it exploitative.The World Trade Center attacks
are still being mined for the big screen
"9/11," starring Charlie Sheen and Whoopi Goldberg, came out just last year.With each release, it seems, those directly affected by attacks
are forced to relieve the horrid day
Bill Doyle, whose son was killed in the Twin Towers, was particularly angry after seeing advertisements for 2012's "Extremely Loud
Incredibly Close," the Tom Hanks vehicle based on a Jonathan Safran Foer novel."Everybody's trying to make money off 9/11," he told the New
"A lot of families got upset
Why couldn't they warn us about this I don't think people really realized that these people are really still stressed.""American Sniper"A
year after Chris Kyle -- the deadliest marksman in United States history who had 255 confirmed kills during four tours in Iraq -- died in
2013, the Oscar-winning, Clint Eastwood-helmed depiction of his life (and death) titled "American Sniper" hit theaters.Made-for-TV moviesThe
timeline also tends to be even shorter when it comes to the made-for-TV movies
Consider this: In May 1993, Tim Daly portrayed David Koresh in a small screen flick about the standoff between the police and the Branch
Davidians - which occurred less than a month earlier.(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff
and is published from a syndicated feed.)
