Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, Joel Edgerton to star in new movie about Thailand Than Luang cave rescue

Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell and Joel Edgerton have joined the cast of Thirteen Lives.

The trio will star in Ron Howard's new film, which tells the story of the Than Luang cave rescue in 2018.

The plot centres on the international rescue effort to save a boys football team who became trapped in a cave in Thailand after it was flooded by heavy rain. The rescue made headlines across the globe as all 12 boys, as well as their coach, were saved.

Viggo, Colin and Joel will star as rescuers Richard Stanton, John Volanthen and Dr. Richard Harris respectively.

Weir Sukollawat, Thiraphat Sajakul, Sahajak Boonthanakit, Vithaya Pansringarm, Teeradon 'James' Supapunpinyo, Nophand Boonyai, Tom Bateman, Paul Gleeson and Lewis Fitz-Gerald will also appear in the movie.

Production on the project is set to begin this month with filming taking place in both Thailand and Australia.

Ron serves as a producer on the project along with Brian Grazer and Karen Lunder for Imagine Entertainment, P.J. van Sandwijk of Storyteller Productions and Gabrielle Tana for the Magnolia Mae banner.

The script will be penned by Gladiator writer William Nicholson and sources suggest the flick has similarities to Ron's 1995 movie Apollo 13, which earned nine Oscar nominations.

Thirteen Lives is not the only project about the cave rescue in the works; the Crazy Rich Asians filmmakeris overseeing a Netflix series focusing on the kids that were saved.

Free Solo filmmakers Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi are also developing a film with Universal Studios, and a NatGeo documentary on the dramatic tale is in the works.