Ballantine Books Acquires Rights to Into the Dark, Firsthand Account Of Last Summer’s Thai Cave Rescue

Ballantine Books, a division of Penguin Random House, has acquired world English rights to Into The Dark, a work of nonfiction centered around last summer’s cave rescues in Thailand, per Deadline. The book will feature firsthand accounts from the divers and team members.

Over the summer of 2018, 12 members of a junior soccer team, aged 11 to 17, and their coach entered a Thai cave after practice. Without warning, heavy rains began to flood the cave, trapping the group inside. The rescue effort was augmented into a massive operation and garnered public interest internationally. Over two weeks passed while the team was trapped inside the cave, but all of the boys and their coach were eventually rescued by an international team. One Thai diver, Saman Kunan, died after running out of oxygen while delivering air tanks to the boys.

Subtitled The Dramatic Story of the Thai Cave Rescue, the book alternates between first-person accounts to relate the trials and tribulations, day-by-day. The narrators will include divers Dr. Craig Challen and Dr. Richard Harris, coach Ekkapol Chantawong and all 12 members of the team.

Alongside the personal accounts, Ellis Henican will author the book. Henican is an American journalist at Newsday and AM New York, as well as a political analyst for Fox News. He is the co-author of the New York Times bestseller The Party’s Over: How the Extreme Right Hijacked the GOP and I Became a Democrat (2014).

Meanwhile, Universal Pictures has obtained feature film rights to Into The Dark. In September, Universal acquired the life rights of the divers and survivors. Michael De Luca and Dana Brunetti will produce the cave rescue feature.