MGM prevailed with their bid to produce Thirteen Lives, making a $55 million production commitment for a drama that Ron Howard will direct from a script by Oscar-nominated Gladiator scribe William Nicholson about the rescue of a dozen members of the Wild Boar soccer team and their coach from a flooded cave in Chiang Rai Province, Thailand. Pic will be a co-production of Imagine Entertainment, Storyteller Productions, and Magnolia Mae.

Pic is produced by P.J van Sandwijk of Storyteller Productions, Gabrielle Tana of Magnolia Mae, and Brian Grazer, Howard and Karen Lunder of Imagine Entertainment.