Listen to the First Track from Netflix's "Thai Cave Rescue" [EXCLUSIVE]
Four years ago, a junior association soccer team from Thailand was trapped in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave for 18 days. The team was composed of twelve boys aged 11-16 and their 25-year-old assistant coach. The group initially made their way into the cave to explore as part of a birthday party. Heavy rainfall trapped the thirteen members of the soccer team in the cave and also flooded other parts of the cave system. No contact was made with anyone trapped inside the cave for two weeks as rescue efforts were severely hampered by prolonged rainfall.
The team was eventually rescued by an international team of divers, police officers, healthcare professionals, government officials, and others. The total number of people that contributed to the rescue efforts was somewhere around 10,000. It’s thanks to the heroic efforts of these people that all members of the soccer team were safely rescued.
This courageous story is being brought to life by Netflix on September 22nd in a six-part series. Thai Cave Rescue will explore the rescue efforts of the families involved, locals, and international volunteers. The series is directed by Kevin Tancharoen and Nattawut Poonpiriya and created/written by Michael Russell Gunn and Dana Ledoux Miller. Their goal with Thai Cave Rescue is to shed light on names audiences will remember and untold stories of heroism. Thanks to the series format, Gunn and Miller had more opportunities to create a deeper understanding of those eighteen days in the cave.
Austin Wintory and longtime collaborating partner Susie Seiter co-composed the music for Thai Cave Rescue. Seiter is a Thai orchestrator and conductor. Together, the two set out to create an authentic Thai score. Seiter and Wintory are an award-winning dynamic duo. Wintory composed the score for the video game, Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, while Seiter orchestrated. The score was recorded at Abbey Road Studios and was subsequently nominated for a BAFTA. This will mark their first series collaboration.
FilmSpeak has been granted an exclusive track from the upcoming series. “The First Five” is mournful, cautious, and unsettling, almost giving an audience a clue to what fate befalls this team. Thanks to the collaboration between Seiter and Wintory, the score captures an authentically Thai sound. This dedication to ensuring a Thai-point-of-view is at the center of the work is a theme that carries over into all other aspects of the series.
At every turn, Thai Cave Rescue seeks to add faithfulness for the viewer. The series was shot entirely in Thailand and the crew even returned to the Tham Luang Nang Non cave. The scenes that were shot in the cave feature Dr. Richard “Harry” Harris as a body double for Rodger Corser, who plays Harris in the series. Dr. Harris traveled from Australia to aid in the rescue efforts in 2018. The series also shot on location in some of the actual homes of the boys who were trapped in the cave.
At the Bangkok premiere, director and executive producer Baz Poonpiriya spoke about the music’s instrumental role in authentically bringing to life the powerful new Netflix series. “[The] beautiful thing about this series is the score, with the use of the Classical Thai instruments,” said Poonpiriya. “[Austin Wintory and Susie Seiter] managed to take the heart and soul of our culture and create something that felt authentic and yet unique in the same beat.”