Miner movie

SANTIAGO, (AFP) – While the trapped Chilean miners waited to be rescued, director Rodrigo Ortuzar was shaping his film about the underground tale of despair and rebirth called, "The 33."

"We have to wait for the ending, but what’s already happened up to now is incredible… There’s such a great story to tell here," Ortuzar told AFP in an interview a few weeks before the first man was rescued.

"My idea is to craft a story focusing on this confinement and at the same time on the rebirth the miners will go through once they come to the surface."

He has already come up with a poster for the movie featuring a lone miner walking down a gloomy tunnel toward a distant patch of light, under the caption: "based on a true story."

Ortuzar even has a tentative opening date for the film, the second half of 2012.

Cameras have been rolling among the tents the families of the trapped miners pitched in the bone-dry Atacama desert outside the San Jose mine after the August 5 collapse that changed their lives.

"We’re filming at the camp as a way of observing what goes on there so we can recreate it later," said Ortuzar, who is unsure the camp images will make the final cut but certain in his intention: "we want to mix fiction with reality."

Great opportunity

"We’ve got a great opportunity to create and develop a script during that time," said Ortuzar.

Camp Hope, where the families’ tents are located, has taken on an unusual life of its own. No money is exchanged, yet there is no shortage of goods. It even includes a makeshift jail.

After the miners got word out they were alive on August 22, some of the families ended their vigil at the camp, returning now and again to check up on things. Others vowed to stay put until their loved ones were rescued.

"This is an incredible story. They’re trapped at a depth of 700 meters and that’s going to cause them a life change. A mini-society has cropped up in the meantime. It’s all so unbelievable," he added.

With three movies under his belt – "Yesterday’s Dreams" (1989), "Mujeres Infieles" (Unfaithful Women) (2004) and "All Inclusive" (2008) – Ortuzar is also working on another reality-based film about the earthquake and tsunami that devastated central Chile on February 12.

"When the mining accident happened, I said: ‘Here we’ve got yet another good story,’" he said explaining how real events for him can turn into creative inspiration.

Ortuzar said the movie is not just a profit-making business venture, responding to those who call him an opportunist taking advantage of a tragic situation.

To prove his point, he said he will donate all the takings of the movie in Chile to a special education fund that will be set up for the children of the trapped miners.

"It’s going to be called ’The 33’ because the number is almost mystical: there are 33 miners and 33 were the letters in the message" they sent up telling the world they were alive ("All 33 of us are well inside the shelter) – it was written in Spanish.

So "the movie is going to last one hour and 33 minutes," Ortuzar promised.