Thanks to some very brave people and a miracle, an entire boys soccer team and their coach were rescued earlier this week from a flooding cave in Thailand. The story griped news outlets and audiences across the globe, so much so that the money-making potential of this traumatic experience is already being exploited.
Discovery fast-tracked a one-hour documentary, Operation Thai Rescue, to air on Friday, July 13. Meanwhile, God’s Not Dead producers leaped at the opportunity to turn the story into an inspirational feature film.
But as Vulture points out, Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu wants everyone to take several seats in order to prevent the whitewashing of this harrowing and heroic incident. If any film is going to be made about the rescue, he’d probably like to make sure members of the Thai Navy SEALs are not portrayed by white actors, or worse, Scarlett Johansson. “I refuse to let Hollywood #whitewashout the Thai Cave rescue story! No way. Not on our watch,” Chu tweeted Wednesday. “That won’t happen or we’ll give them hell.”
