But the streaming giant would not immediately be drawn on whether it would give the saga its high-end mini-series treatment or be made into a film.

The 12 boys and their coach became trapped in a flooded Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand during the monsoon season on June 23 last year after finishing football training.

Members of the ‘Wild Boars’ football team pose for a photo with their coach Ekkapol Chantawong (back C) during a press conference in Bangkok on April 30, 2019 regarding a Netflix series about the rescue of the team from the Tham Luang cave. // AFP PHOTO

The twists and turns of their dramatic 18-day rescue dominated international headlines, as dive experts worked round the clock to extract them from the bowels of the cave with waters rising and food running out.

The Wild Boars, several of them from poor and marginalised ethnic hill tribes, have since been catapulted to global fame, revelling in invites from professional football clubs and television appearances including on Ellen Degeneres’ headlining US daytime show.

A lucrative mini-industry in retelling their story has spun out, with local and international film companies and publishing houses queuing up to squeeze out books, films and documentaries.

“There is a universality to storytelling and this incredible tale is no exception,” said Erika North, director of international originals for Netflix at a ceremony attended by SK Global — producers of “Crazy Rich Asians” — the Wild Boars team and their coach.

“We are looking to tell the most authentic story possible,” she said, adding it would not be finished this year but refused to confirm the format it would take.

The 12 boys and their coach, dressed in suits with yellow shirts — royal colours to commemorate this weekend’s coronation of the Thai king — beamed for photographers.

‘Wild Boars’ football team coach Ekkapol Chantawong gives a speech during a press conference in Bangkok on April 30, 2019 regarding a Netflix series about the rescue of the team from the Tham Luang cave. // AFP PHOTO

Coach Ekkapol Chantawong is president of the newly-minted 13 Thumluang Company – which is the bridging point between the production houses, the boys and their families.

“Netflix will be able to bring out the whole story and portray it correctly,” he told reporters.

Also present was army Lieutenant-General Werachon Sukondhapatipak, an advisor to the 13 Thumluang Company and former spokesman for the ruling junta.

No financial details were given at Tuesday’s press conference amid rumours of life-changing payouts to the team and their families in exchange for helping with the project.

Werachon said the team planned to give around 20 percent of any earnings to charity “because the families and the boys recognise they have been helped and supported by so many people,” though he acknowledged this was “voluntary” for the youngsters.

Thai authorities want to keep a close hand on international productions of the saga, aware of the potential for disagreements over rights and retellings that veer from their portrayal of events.

The boys — who were sedated for the arduous hours-long rescue — were eventually extracted from the cave by teams of expert divers.

SK Global Entertainment/Ivanhoe Pictures president of international productions Michael Hogan (R) listens to Netflix director of international originals Erika North during a press conference in Bangkok on April 30, 2019 regarding a Netflix series about the rescue of the ‘Wild Boars’ football team from the Tham Luang cave. // AFP PHOTO

“Crazy Rich Asians” director Jon M. Chu will also join the project as director, along with Thai director Nattawut Poonpiriya, whose 2017 heist thriller “Bad Genius” earned critical acclaim.

A separate project due out later this year is feature-length film “The Cave” from Thai-born director Tom Waller, who enlisted real rescuers as actors in the movie.

    The incident comes as authorities were beefing up security ahead of the popular emperor’s abdication on Tuesday after a 30-year reign.

The man, identified as Kaoru Hasegawa, was arrested on suspicion of illegally entering the premises of the junior high school the 12-year-old prince attends on Friday, public broadcaster NHK and other news reports said.

His motive was not immediately clear.

    NHK said police officials were questioning him and suspected he placed the knives at the desk, while Nippon Television said he admitted the allegations.

A police spokesman declined to comment.

Hisahito, who began attending the school this month, was not in the classroom when the knives are believed to have been left.

There were no reports of any injuries or damage at the school, while police did not find any threatening note related to the case.

Security camera footage showed a man with a helmet trespassing on the school grounds at around noon, they said.

Police had been searching for the middle-aged man who was dressed as a construction worker.

Threats to the imperial family are relatively rare. In 1975, Akihito was almost hit by a Molotov cocktail in Okinawa, a major World War II battlefield where there was strong anti-emperor sentiment.

The incident comes as Japan is preparing for the abdication of Akihito, the first monarch to relinquish the throne of the world’s oldest imperial family for two centuries.

Akihito’s eldest son, 59-year-old Crown Prince Naruhito, will take the throne on Wednesday in a series of ceremonies.

Hisahito is the son of Naruhito’s younger brother and the last eligible male heir.

Japan’s centuries-old succession would be broken if Hisahito does not have a male child as the Imperial Household Law, in place since 1947, does not allow women to ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne.

Another 12 foreigners remain unaccounted for and could be among still unidentified bodies at Colombo’s police morgue, foreign ministry officials said.

Five wounded foreigners were still in hospital after the April 21 blasts at churches and hotels claimed by the Islamic State group.

A ministry statement said the highest number of victims were from India (11) followed by Britain (six), China (four) and Denmark (three).

    Saudi Arabia, Spain and Turkey lost two nationals each. Bangladesh, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, United States, all lost one national.

There were six other people with more than one nationality.

Previously authorities had said that 40 foreign nationals were killed and had not given a breakdown on their nationalities.

“Human remains of 25 foreign nationals have been repatriated by Monday evening,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

“Additionally, 12 foreign nationals are unaccounted for at present, and could be among the unidentified victims at the Colombo Judicial Medical Officer’s mortuary.”

Identification of those killed at the luxury hotels was difficult because many of the bodies were badly mutilated, health authorities have said.

The government has declared a state of emergency after the devastating blasts and banned two jihadists groups accused of responsibility for the bombings.

Many tourists have left the country after the attacks and there has been a sharp decline in the number of foreigners visiting the island after several countries warned against travel to Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka’s finance ministry expects a 30-percent decline in tourist arrivals this year leading to a loss in revenues of about $1.5 billion.

“The government has agreed to grant unrecorded leave to allow those of Siamese descent to celebrate the occasion with their family,” he said in a directive.

Based on a census conducted in 2010, there are some 50,000 Malaysian-Siamese in the country.

The 59-year-old heir has not been shy about criticising the sometimes stifling lifestyle imposed on royals, particularly as his wife Masako has struggled to adapt to imperial life.

And like his popular father Akihito, he has warned of the need to remember World War II “correctly,” without downplaying Japan’s early 20th-century militarism.

Born on February 23, 1960, Naruhito was the first Japanese prince to grow up under the same roof as his parents and siblings — royal children were previously raised by nannies and teachers.

    He studied for two years at Oxford University in the 1980s after graduating with a history degree in Japan, and reportedly adorned his residence with a poster of American actress Brooke Shields.

In Britain, he was able to shed some of the strictures of royal life in Japan, mingling with other students as well as the British royal family, and he has spoken fondly of that period.

In 1993, he wed Masako Owada, who will become empress when Naruhito assumes the Chrysanthemum Throne in May.

The daughter of a diplomatic family and educated at Harvard and Oxford, Masako left behind a promising diplomatic career of her own to marry into the royal family.

– ‘New royal duties’ –

Naruhito promised to “protect her at any cost” as she made the transition, and Masako explained she had sacrificed her career to “make myself useful in this new path”.

But she struggled to adjust to cloistered life inside the family, punctuated by occasional and highly choreographed public appearances.

She also came under enormous pressure to bear a son because Japan’s imperial succession excludes women. This scrutiny only intensified after she gave birth to her daughter Princess Aiko in 2001 — the couple’s only child.

In 2004, Naruhito accused palace minders of stifling his wife’s personality, in unprecedented public remarks.

“To me, Masako seems worn out in her efforts to adjust herself to life as a royal over the past 10 years… It is also true that there was something that amounted to a denial of Masako’s former career,” he said.

He described Masako as “anguished that she was hardly allowed to visit foreign countries although she left her job as a diplomat”.

The same year, the palace disclosed that Masako had been undergoing treatment for stress-induced “adjustment disorder” for almost her entire marriage.

Naruhito later apologised for his remarks, but he has called for “new royal duties” to fit modern times.

The pressure on Masako eased somewhat when her sister-in-law gave birth in 2006 to a son, the now 12-year-old Prince Hisahito.

– ‘Close to the people’ –

Naruhito has also followed his father’s lead by hitting back against revisionism on Japan’s role in World War II, with remarks seen by some as a rebuke of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s nationalism.

“Today when memories of war are set to fade, I reckon it is important to look back on our past with modesty and pass down correctly the miserable experience and the historic path Japan took from the generation who know the war to the generation who don’t,” he said in 2015.

Naruhito and Masako are expected to pursue the role of comforters-in-chief crafted by the current imperial couple, who have won public support for their appearances alongside the victims of natural disasters.

They “will probably follow the current style of standing side-by-side with the public — visiting disaster-hit areas and praying for peace while mourning the war dead”, said Hideya Kawanishi, an associate professor at Nagoya University and Japanese history expert.

In February, Naruhito said he hoped as emperor to “be always close to the people and share the joys as well as the sorrows”.

But the couple “will not be able to do the same amount of activities as the current imperial couple do” given Masako’s health, Kawanishi told AFP.

In a statement released on her birthday in December, Masako pledged to do her best despite feeling “insecure” about becoming empress.

In the candid statement, she said she was recovering and could “perform more duties than before”, crediting the “powerful support” of the public.

Doctors have warned however that she will need to continue treatment and is susceptible to fatigue.

    Akihito is handing over the Chrysanthemum Throne to his eldest son, 59-year-old Crown Prince Naruhito, in a series of solemn rituals that also usher in the new imperial era named “Reiwa” — meaning beautiful harmony — that will last throughout the new monarch’s reign.

As crowds began to gather early Tuesday in drizzle outside the sumptuous Imperial Palace in central Tokyo, Akihito performed a ritual to “report” his abdication to his ancestors and the Shinto gods at several “sanctuaries”.

But the main event will be at 5:00 pm local time (0800 GMT), when the 85-year-old Akihito will formally step down in a 10-minute ceremony in the “Matsu-no-Ma” (“Room of Pine”), considered the Imperial Palace’s most elegant hall.

    The ritual will be conducted in the presence of the imperial regalia — an ancient sword and jewel — considered crucial evidence of an emperor’s legitimacy.

However, Akihito nominally remains emperor until the stroke of midnight and Naruhito “inherits” the regalia at a second ceremony Wednesday at 10:30am, making his first official public remarks shortly afterwards.

Wednesday’s ceremony is expected to be attended by just one woman — the sole female member of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet. Female royals are prohibited from participating.

The ceremonies are not public but hardy bands of wellwishers congregated outside the palace on Tuesday morning, despite near-constant rain.

“I’d like to thank the emperor for his hard work,” said 76-year-old Hironari Uemara, visiting Tokyo from Okayama in western Japan.

His wife said she would miss Akihito and the outgoing imperial Heisei era.

“I feel like crying,” she told AFP.

President Donald Trump was among the first world leaders to send congratulations, offering “heartfelt appreciation” to the outgoing imperial couple and stressing the “close relationship” between the US and Japan.

    – Popular touch –

The popular Akihito stunned Japan when he announced in 2016 his wish to give up the Chrysanthemum Throne, citing his age and health problems — he has been treated for prostate cancer and has also undergone heart surgery.

There have been abdications in Japan’s long imperial history, which has mythological origins and stretches back more than two millennia, but the last one was more than two centuries ago.

A more lavish and public enthronement ceremony attended by world leaders will take place on October 22.

Akihito has sought to modernise Japan’s imperial family, which has a sensitive position given the role his father Hirohito played in the country’s militaristic past.

Akihito and his wife Empress Michiko won plaudits for a popular touch, notably comforting people affected by the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown that devastated whole swathes of east Japan and killed thousands.

Images of the couple kneeling and bowing to those in temporary shelters gave heart to the stricken nation and Akihito took the rare step of giving a televised address to reassure his people.

Like his father, Naruhito is seen as a modern royal and has previously issued mild criticism of the sometimes stifling lifestyle imposed on royals, particularly as his wife Masako has struggled to adapt to imperial life and has long battled stress-induced illness.

    – Succession fears –

The new emperor inherits a country very different to when it last crowned a new emperor.

Then, Japan ruled the world economically in the middle of a technology-fuelled boom that caused soaring land prices and sparked wild cost comparisons: the Imperial Palace grounds were worth more than all of Canada.

Now, Japan’s population is in decline and it is on course to become the world’s first “ultra-aged” society, with 28 percent of people over 65.

The boom gave way to a “lost decade” of tepid economic growth and deflation from which Japan has not fully recovered.

The abdication has also reignited concerns about a potential succession crisis. There are no more eligible male heirs after the 12-year-old son of Naruhito’s younger brother Akishino.

Japan’s centuries-old succession would be broken if that child, Hisahito, does not have a son. The idea of letting women ascend the throne is popular with Japanese, but vehemently opposed by traditionalists.

The historic abdication has resulted in an unprecedented 10-day holiday for the famously hard-working Japanese, as special days off to mark the new emperor combine with the traditional “Golden Week” celebrations in May.

As the holiday kicked off over the weekend, bullet trains and airports were packed, but the exodus left the capital’s commuter trains unusually empty.

Security was stepped up around the ceremonies, with divers combing through moats surrounding the palace and police dogs sniffing around the surrounding streets and gardens.