A "creative media" committee, led by the culture minister, is set to be appointed to screen projects to recollect the story of the 13 Wild Boar footballers in the flooded Tham Luang cave.

One of the main tasks of the committee is to examine all the projects and ensure producers comply with Thai laws during their work, deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said Thursday.

As of Thursday, he claimed, 13 producers have shown an interest in getting the rights to turn the incident into a range of artistic works including movies, documentaries, novels and computer games.

If they want to film at Tham Luang, they need permission from National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department which oversees the cave in Chiang Rai's Mae Sai district.

Any request for additional information from the 12 boys and their coach must be also made properly, Mr Wissanu said, worried that the footballers may be contacted and asked to give further interviews through agents. That would not be a favourable scenario.

Culture Minister Vira Rojpojchanarat will pick the committee members himself before informing the deputy premier of the final member list.

Mr Vira said earlier that five foreign film studios had expressed an interest in telling the story, but according to Mr Wissanu, that number has now increased to 13.

The government may also make its own version of the story, doing the work itself or hiring private companies to do the job, he said.

"We already have the creative media fund. We'll only allocate the budget," Mr Wissanu said.

The 17-day operation to help the 13 footballers who went missing in the flooded cave after their excursion on June 23 involved tremendous effort from an international team of rescuers who had to race against time to locate and extract them amid a looming threat of floods and decreasing amounts of oxygen.

On Wednesday, twelve members of the team began a nine-day stint in the monkhood to give thanks for being rescued and to honour the sacrifice of the ex-Navy Seal officer Lt Cdr Saman Gunan, who drowned during the operation.