Viggo Mortensen criticises ‘appalling’ Amazon as ‘shameful’ for releasing 2022 film on streaming

Viggo Mortensen has criticised Amazon for releasing the Thai cave rescue film, Thirteen Lives, on streaming – and scrapping an extensive theatrical release.

Mortensen, 65, starred as heroic caver Richard Stanton in the film, which was released in 2022 and told the real-life story of the 2018 mission to save a children’s football team from an underwater cave. It also featured performances from Colin Farrell and Joel Edgerton.

In an interview with Vanity Fair, the actor said the film was a “really good movie” that MGM had intended to “put out worldwide in many, many, many thousands of theatres” after it “got the highest scores in the history of that studio” in its test screenings.

He added: “Then Amazon bought MGM, initially promised to respect the deal that MGM had made with [director] Ron Howard, and then they went back on that. Basically you saw that movie for a week in Chicago, New York and LA, London, and that was that.

“Then you had the streaming, which I thought was really sad. It’s a really well-shot movie.”

He continued: “They have all their excuses for why they did that, but it comes down to greed. How much money do you need? I think Amazon could certainly have respected the deal, as they said they were going to, and released it widely in theatres and let it have its run. And then they could have also made money streaming.

“But they figured it would be more cost-effective – i.e., they would make more money – if they didn’t have to bother with spending money on promoting it and putting in theatres and sharing that money with theatres, frankly. That’s what it comes down to. To me, it’s greed.”

He said it was especially “appalling” for Amazon to have treated Ron Howard, the filmmaker behind huge, money-making movies such as The Da Vinci Code, that way.

Mortensen said: “He’s a very nice guy, so he hasn’t gone out there complaining about it, but I’m happy to do it for him. I’m not speaking for him, I’m just speaking for myself. I think it was shameful what they did.”

Thirteen Lives was quite well-reviewed, with The Independent’s Clarisse Loughrey giving the film three stars and writing: “Howard’s focus is on documenting action rather than capturing emotion – the claustrophobia, the ravenous grief, the shadow of guilt around the corner, ready to pounce if the wrong decision is made. We see little of the children themselves, and the abject terror they must have experienced spending 18 days in the dark.

“But, in an industry full of boastful fantasists and relentless exploitation, you have to be thankful for someone like Howard. He cares about the stories he tells. And that’s rare.”

A 2021 documentary film about the disaster, called The Rescue – made by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin – received huge critical acclaim. In an interview promoting the documentary, Stanton (played by Mortensen in the dramatisation) told The Independent about how they carried out their “preposterous” plan to save the boys.