'The 33' Digs Deep Into Faith, Personal Stories of Miraculous Chilean Miners
Those who followed the story of the miners' captivity after an explosion caused the gold and copper mine where they worked to collapse may believe they already know how the story unfolds. However, Producer Mike Medavoy saw the importance of sharing more of the story.
"The film isn't just the ending everyone saw; it's the personal stories of the people, both above and below ground, who held onto their love and their faith for an outcome that seemed impossible," Medavoy shared.
Aside from critically-acclaimed actors Banderas and Phillips, the star-studded cast that brings "The 33" to life includes Academy Award-winning actress Juliette Binoche who plays María Segovia — the sister of one of the men trapped in the mine — and Rodrigo Santoro, who portrays Chilean Minister of Mining Laurence Golborne.
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The film was adapted from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Hector Tobar's New York Times best-selling book Deep Down Dark, which encompasses the tales of multiple miners.
"Essentially this is a love story," Tobar told CP. "These women on the surface love these knuckleheads and want them home."
While the movie details the fears and dangers the miners endure as they struggle to survive, it also includes the perspectives of rescuers who were under heavy pressure to save them.
Instead of utilizing a Hollywood studio, Riggen opted to film in a real Colombian mine located just kilometers from where the real-life events took place in 2010.
"'The 33' cast and crew spent 14-hour days and 6 days a week as miners underground where they grew sick from carbon monoxide-filled air without food, and a 20-minute walk to find a bathroom. When they were not on set, the star-studded cast stayed at a truck stop style motel where they spent over an hour scrubbing soot off their bodies with miner's soap in a shower without hot water," Riggin said.
"To some degree, it showed my cast what being a miner is because they were genuinely experiencing being underground from morning 'til night. It gave everybody an extra layer of understanding of what those 33 men went through."
