Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera are currently starring in The Lost Bus, a ripped from the headlines film that premiered on Apple TV+ on October 3.
The film is based on real-life events that transpired during the Camp Fire in Paradise, CA in 2018, when a school bus driver transported 22 students to safety through 30 miles of smoke and inferno.
McConaughey plays real-life bus driver turned hero Kevin McKay, while Ferrera stars as teacher Mary Ludwig, who was on the bus assisting with the rescue effort. The story for The Lost Bus was one of many featured in the 2021 non-fiction book about the wildfires, Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire, by Lizzie Johnson.
Jamie Lee Curtis, who produced the film, got the idea after reading a Washington Post review of Johnson’s book. She then recruited screenwriters Paul Greengrass and Brad Ingelsby to turn it into a screenplay.
“So, I read an article in the Washington Post. It was a review of Lizzie Johnson’s book, Paradise, and there was a sidebar story of Kevin McKay and Mary Ludwig, the school bus driver and teacher who saved the lives of 22 kids,” Curtis told ABC 7 ahead of the theatrical release in September. “And I said out loud to my husband, well, that’s the movie. That’s how you make the movie.”
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“And I called Jason Blum, who’s my partner, and I said, ‘I want to make a movie, and I believe it’ll be the most important thing either one of us does in the movie business,’” she continued. “And that’s how the movie began.”
What happened in the real life story of The Lost Bus?
On November 8, 2018, Kevin McKay responded to an emergency call at Ponderosa Elementary shortly after the fires broke out, where he picked up the 22 students. Having known his own family had already evacuated, McKay made it his mission to make sure the children made it to safety. And he did so after also learning that his home had burned to the ground.
McKay then drove for five hours through thick smoke obstructing his view in sometimes standstill traffic. During the ordeal, he tore off pieces of his shirt and teachers Abbie Davis and Mary Ludwig, who were also aboard the bus, soaked them in water to help the children breathe.
“We didn’t leave until every kid was accounted for, and every kid was with their mom and dad,” McKay told CBS News.
And it was nothing short of a miracle that he got them to safety. The destruction of the wildfires was deadly and widespread. All told, 85 people were killed and over 50,000 resident displaced.
According to NPR, the fire ravaged nearly 19,000 buildings, and it was estimated that 90 percent of Paradise was “completely leveled” in the destruction.
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The cause of the fire was later found to be a poorly maintained power line from the state’s largest utility, Pacific Gas and Electric, exacerbated by abnormally dry conditions and high winds. PG&E filed for bankruptcy in early 2019, anticipating $30 billion in wildfire liabilities. In December 2019, the utility company settled for $13.5 billion, and pleaded guilty to 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter on June 16, 2020.
How does The Lost Bus differ from the real life story?
The Lost Bus is a dramatization of the real-life events, and the filmmakers obviously took some liberties for tension and pacing. As such, some of the hazards McConaughey’s depiction of McKay faced were amplified for dramatic stakes. In the film, McKay was also worried about the safety of his family, whereas in real life he knew they were safe before rescuing the children.
Additionally, while there were two teachers on the bus that day, the film instead focused on Ludwig to simplify the story. According to Time, Davis also declined involvement in the film.
Were Kevin McKay and Mary Ludwig involved in the making of The Lost Bus?
McConaughey and Ferrera did indeed spend some time with McKay and Ludwig in preparing for the role.
“For me, the beginning was read up on I mean, read up on the events. Sit with Kevin, meet him, hear his story, ask him questions,” McConaughey told ABC 7. “Let him tell me what was important to him or be able to just hear how he retells the story and see what points you could tell really mattered to him and then investigate more on those points. Then it was about making him my own.”
For her part, Ferrera gushed that Ludwig was “remarkable and was so generous and lovely,” and answered every question she had for her.
“And the Mary who ended up on screen is different. You know?” she said. “I think about Mary as, yes, having been on a selfless journey that was about giving herself to other people, but it was also in the end, it’s about her giving herself to herself and choosing the life she wants.”
McKay also told Action News Now in September that he felt “very included” during the process of making the movie.
“I got to share my perspective and a lot of that perspective made it into the film and some very key moments,” he recalled.” The authenticity that Apple was looking to come up with, the filmmaker, Paul Greengrass, he wanted this to be real and authentic and true to the story… and of course it’s a Hollywood film … so there’s some things in there that are either exaggerated or collapsed you know, you have to show a movie a couple of hours.”
Additionally, McConaughey’s real-life son, Levi McConaughey, played McKay’s son in the film. His mother Kay McCabe McConaughey also plays his mother.
