Viggo Mortensen Says It’s “Shameful” That Amazon Released 2022 Biopic ‘Thirteen Lives’ On Streaming

Courtesy of Prime Video.

Viggo Mortensen has publicly criticised Amazon for releasing the riveting biographical cave rescue film ‘Thirteen Lives’ on streaming, due to the studio revoking a planned theatrical release.

The film told the real-life story of the 2018 mission to save a children’s football team from a flooding underwater cave.

Mortensen starred as cave diver Richard Stanton in the 2022 film, alongside 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 performing well in test screenings.

The actor added: “Then Amazon bought MGM, initially promised to respect the deal that MGM had made with 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.”

Mortensen 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.”

The actor says it was “appalling” how Amazon treated director Ron Howard.

“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.”

Watch a clip from ‘Thirteen Lives’ below: