Thread by @rcbregman

NEWS! The Real Lord of the Flies will become a movie!! The last two weeks have been a crazy rollercoaster 😅 (thread) /1 deadline.com/2020/05/new-re…

Lots of Hollywood studios suddenly wanted to buy the rights to the story of Sione, Luke, Mano, Tevita, Fatai and Kolo, the Tongan teenagers who survived for 15 months on an uninhabited island in 1965-66. /2

I interviewed Mano, Sione and Peter Warner (the captain who rescued the six boys) for my new book HUMANKIND. Two weeks ago, The Guardian published an excerpt, and the piece went viral (8 million views by now).
theguardian.com/books/2020/may… /3

A lot of studios approached me to sell the rights to the story, but it’s not my story of course. People in Tonga have been telling it to their children for generations. /4

Problem: I didn’t have the contact details of Luke, Tevita, Fatai and Kolo. Luckily - with the help of their wonderful family members - we managed to connect with each other in just a couple of days. /5

Sione and Luke in California, Mano and Peter in Australia and Tevita in New Zealand. Stephen and Kolo are sadly no longer with us. /6

We agreed to collaborate and share everything (I’m donating my share to Tongan charity). We looked at all the proposals from the top studios and made a collective, unanimous decision. /7

This happened during a Zoom call in 4 different time zones that started with a short speech by the 89-year old Peter, who emphasized we’d be making one of the most important decisions of our lives. /8

It ended with a prayer in Tongan by Sione, who - in 1965 - promised God he’d become a pastor if he’d survive, and who had kept his promise. I will never forget this moment. /9

So here we are. Finally, after 50 years, the survivors have reconnected and the world will hear their story. Film studio New Regency has promised that they will do everything to strive for cultural authenticity and work as much as possible with local crew/ filmmakers. /10

Sione, Luke, Mano, Tevita and Peter will be brought on as consultants, and New Regency will hire other Tongan consultants as well. /11

I’m so grateful and honoured that I could have played a role in all of this. We think New Regency - makers of TWELVE YEARS A SLAVE and THE REVENANT - can make this into an unforgettable movie.

And we all look forward to the day we meet on the red carpet! /[the-end]

(CORRECTION: I mean Fatai and Kolo are no longer with us - Stephen was Fatai's anglicized name)