Tony Jaa's third film

And some more news from Sebu, relayed from Twitch, but it really comes from Variety's Asian film blog by Grady Hendrix, Kaiju Shakedown: Tony Jaa's third film will be about sword fighting.

He reports that Sword will have Tony, director Prachya Pinkaew and mentor/action director Panna Ritthakrai delving into the ancient Thai art of double-handed sword fighting.

Up to now, the best example of this could be found in Thanit Jitnukul's Sema, Warrior of Ayutthaya, and maybe a bit in Bangrajan.

There's more from Kaiju: A look at acclaimed Thai films that have had a tough time on the international scene, notably Tears of the Black Tiger (bought by Miramax and shelved), Citizen Dog (bought by Luc Besson's Europa Corp, but no plans as of yet for distribution), Last Life in the Universe (lacklustre box-office receipts) and Tom Yum Goong (already sold, though it won't be released until August, which has Hendrix wondering if the film industry have Tony Jaa's best interests at heart, or are just trying to make hay while the sun shines on his career)

And lastly, from Kaiju, a link to an interview with stunt coordinator Xiong Xin Xin from wu-jing.org, in which the former stuntman and actor (Clubfoot from Once Upon a Time in China) laments his place in the industry, talks trash about Crouching Tiger and has this to say about Ong-Bak:

When I saw Ong Bak in Thailand, I thought it was like giving the Chinese films a big, tight slap on the face."

(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes)