BANGKOK • Tom Waller, the Thai-born director of Mindfulness And Murder (2011) and The Last Executioner (2014), is bringing his most anticipated project to date to cinemas in November - his retelling of the dramatic rescue of a youth football team from a cave in Chiangrai.

A first trailer has just been released for The Cave, which is titled Nang Non in Thai.

The movie coming to cinemas on Nov 28 recounts the story of the 12 boys and the team's assistant coach who were trapped by rising floodwaters while exploring Tham Luang Cave on June 23 last year.

But the focus quickly zeroes in on the rescuers - who battled doubts, uncertainty and daunting physical obstacles to find and then rescue the whole team safely after more than a fortnight, while the world watched the mission on television and online.

Waller seized on the perspective of foreign rescuers like Jim Warny, an expert cave diver who assisted in the mission and understood the Thai context and the international attention riveted on Chiangrai.

"This is most certainly the biggest film I have directed," Waller said at the recent Cannes Film Festival. "But having provided production support for Hollywood films, I knew it was quite possible for Thai crews to create that sense of scale. We had hundreds of extras and an extensive art department, and I think we were able to give an accurate impression of what it was like to be in that cave at that time."

Waller acknowledged there was great interest from Hollywood when he was asked if he felt any pressure tackling such an emotionally-charged story.

"Hollywood does what it does very well, but I was worried that... it would probably be dramatised in a way that might not be entirely authentic," he said. "I really wanted to be able to keep the authenticity and reality."

THE NATION/ASIA NEWS NETWORK