Chilean miners movie gets the green light

Back in September, while the 33 Chilean miners were still trapped a couple thousand feet below the surface, director Rodrigo Ortuzar began prep on a film chronicling their story, in a move I compared to the classic film Ace in the Hole. I still feel that way. His would have been titled The 33 and had a gimmicky premise revolving around the number. Whether or not that movie ever gets made is anybody's guess, but it appears there'll be some competition if it does. Variety reports that a deal has been struck that will bring another film based on the Chilean miners story to the big screen.

Black Swan producer Mike Medavoy is behind this one, through his Half Circle production house. Chilean entrepreneurs Carlos Eugenio Lavín and Leopoldo Enriquez are exec-producing, with a script by Jose Rivera, the guy who wrote the Che Guevara biopic The Motorcyle Diaries. No word on who will helm just yet.

This is turning out to be a pretty big deal, with a parallel novel being written by Hector Tobar. The book will include never before release details, some of which taken from the diary of one of the miners written while trapped.

Production will begin some time next year, but I wonder what kind of appeal this film will have outside of Chile. Unlike the whole Somali pirates movie, this one likely won't have a star the equal of Tom Hanks attached to it.