Matthew McConaughey stars with his family in film about California's deadliest wildfire

Matthew McConaughey is starring alongside two generations of his family in The Lost Bus, a film about escaping California’s deadly 2018 wildfires. McConaughey plays Kevin McKay, a school bus driver who must shepherd 22 schoolchildren and their teacher to safety as a raging inferno closes in. The movie unfolds against the backdrop of a disaster that researchers say was triggered when a power line sparked in the Sierra foothills, setting off a wildfire that burned for 17 days, killed 85 people and displaced more than 50,000. Paradise, California, and nearby communities bore the brunt of the destruction.

America Ferrera co-stars as teacher Mary Ludwig, and the film has a distinctly personal element for McConaughey because it features two generations of his family in the cast. The 93-year-old Kay McConaughey portrays Kevin’s mother, and Levi McConaughey, 17, appears in his first screen role as Levi. The actor recounts how the unusual casting came together: Levi asked to audition after hearing his father describe the script, and after four persistent requests, McConaughey agreed to submit a tape—without his last name attached. When director Paul Greengrass saw the video, he didn’t realize Levi was McConaughey’s son until after he’d cast him. Kay was cast after Greengrass asked whether his mother might audition as well.

Greengrass, renowned for his documentary-influenced realism, says the casting approach was part of a broader commitment to truth on screen. “Paul Greengrass started as a documentary filmmaker, so his interest in truth, in reality, is very important,” McConaughey notes. The director is known for using non-actors to play themselves, a tactic that aligned with his goal of grounding The Lost Bus in real emotions and real stakes. He ultimately chose to eschew a purely virtual set, opting instead for a real-world environment that could lend authenticity to the bus ride through danger. He explains that the production built an abandoned campus in New Mexico, laid out roads, and used actual vehicles and gas lines while carefully controlling what could be burned. “In the end, we got an abandoned campus in New Mexico, a huge area with many roads, and we decided to do it for real,” Greengrass says. “The wildfire is so dominant it’s arguably the main character in the film.”

The screenplay intertwines multiple human dramas in the midst of the fire. Kevin already contends with the loss of his father, his mother’s illness, a failing marriage, and a teenage son who wants to move back in with his grandmother, before he realizes he’s the only driver who can help Mary and the children reach safety. The film’s tension rests on split-second choices that could save or endanger everyone aboard the bus, while the adults confront their own fears for their families. The wildfire’s scale—both literal and narrative—reflects larger concerns about an era of increasingly frequent and intense blazes. Greengrass has said he aimed to deliver the most realistic cinematic experience of fire possible, blending footage of real flames with controlled gas-fire scenes and computer-generated elements where appropriate.

The Lost Bus has drawn notable involvement from Jamie Lee Curtis, who co-produced the project after reading Lizzie Johnson’s Paradise: One Town’s Struggle to Survive an American Wildfire in a Washington Post article. Curtis described the moment as a turning point, telling colleagues that she believed the story could be one of the most important projects of their careers. She and fellow producer Jason Blum began developing the film, with Curtis later forming a close friendship with the real Kevin McKay and Mary Ludwig as production progressed. Curtis shares a personal link to the story through her own career—she starred in Halloween, a film whose memory resonates with Mary Ludwig, who once recalled sharing a moment with Curtis’s mother after the real-life sorrow of losing a loved one. Curtis says the project has “come full circle” in a deeply personal way for both her and the real-life subjects. She adds that the film honors the sacrifices of first responders and all Paradise residents who faced unimaginable danger.

The Lost Bus arrived in theaters and will stream on Apple TV+ starting October 3. McConaughey has emphasized the broader relevance of the project, noting that the world is currently seeing wildfires around the globe and that the film’s human-centered focus offers a way to understand resilience in times of crisis. He asserts that the people of Paradise are heroes, a sentiment echoed by the production team and the real families who participated in the film. The project’s release cadence—cinemas first, followed by television streaming—aims to reach audiences with a compelling, real-world story that blends documentary-like truth-telling with the drama of a high-stakes rescue.

The Lost Bus marks a rare convergence of Hollywood star power and lived experience, with a cast that includes an Oscar winner, a rising young actor, and a family deeply connected to the disaster they are portraying. The film’s production choices—relying on real locations, practical effects, and the participation of real first responders—signal a shift toward authenticity in a genre that often leans on spectacle. As Greengrass has suggested, the goal is not to sensationalize destruction but to illuminate the choices people face when time runs out and safety hangs in the balance. In that framing, the film seeks to honor those who work and risk everything in the line of duty when communities are forced to confront the worst of natural disasters.