Tom Yum Goong sold in France

On the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival, distribution rights to the Ong-Bak follow-up, Tom Yum Goong were sold to TF1, the film division of the major French TV network. The news comes via comments from Sebu, who cited Screen Daily, Variety and Hollywood Reporter, and says the deal is for worldwide distribution, except Asia.

Hollywood Reporter said it was "the biggest single acquisitions deal yet done for a film from Thailand's burgeoning industry", though an amount has been attached to any of the reports. Will be checking the local press for more on this.

Tom Yum Goong stars martial-arts sensation Tony Jaa and is directed by Pracha Pinkaew. Petchtai Wongkamlao also returns, though he's playing a different character. The action takes Tony to Australia on the trail of an elephant stolen by a Chinese triad led by Xing Jing. Johnny Nguyen and Nathan Jones are among the heavies encountered. It's due for release in August.

Also sold at Cannes, was the Malaysian historical epic, The Princess of Mount Ledang. This is according to the Malay Mail.

The feature was sold to distributors in Britain, Thailand, Greece, China and Germany.
The buyers were especially impressed with the relatively "low" budget of the film, which is the Malaysian film industry's most expensive movie to date.

"When we showed the trailer, the people were very impressed because they never thought something worth US$5 million could look that good," a film company rep told the paper.

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)