Real-life caving disaster becomes 3D film

Screenwriter Andrew Wight has adapted his real-life experience of a terrifying cave-diving trip into a 3D film.

Sanctum tells the story of Wight and his fellow divers, who were trapped inside a subterranean cave in 1989 and were forced into extreme escape attempts.

Produced by Avatar director James Cameron, the film stars Welsh actor Ioan Gruffudd as one of the diving team.

For Gruffudd, it was a film shoot like no other: "It's a thrill to have survived this movie, to be honest with you. It was sort of an arduous, gruelling task to shoot it, but we wanted to do justice to the reality of this sort of situation because, let's not forget, this was based on a true story, a true event. And, we're thrilled that we represented these characters well."

Sanctum is out now in cinemas nationwide.