Before they collaborated on 1997's Dang Bireley's and Young Gangsters (2499 antapan krong muang), and before Nang Nak in 1999, Wisit Sasanatieng and Nonzee Nimibutr had made an earlier film -- one that ended up being seized by the studio and was never released.
The story is related in Soopsip in today's Daily Xpress, from an interview with Wisit on Thai public television station NBT.
Here's more from the Soopsip item:
In an interview on NBT, Wisit recalled “the early days when Nonzee decided we’d had enough of making TV commercials and we were dying to make a film”.
They had 1 million baht and stretched it by working day and night with an unpaid cast.
It sounds like the makings of a great success-the-hard-way story, but it was not to be.
“We were in the process of editing it,” Wisit said, “but we owed a lot of money to the studio – and the lab seized the film.”
Where is that movie now?!
Soopsip doesn't remember the name of the show, though it was broadcast at around 11pm on a Sunday night.
It was an anecdote told in passing and laughed off during a lengthy interview with Wisit about his career. So I'm not even sure if the film still exists or that Wisit and Nonzee and others involved would really want it released.
After that, Wisit went back to making commercials for a bit. Nonzee started selling off his car and other property in an effort to raise some "serious" cash in order to make Dang Bireley's.
This sounds absolutely fascinating (if it's true!). It does seem odd that the film would be seized in post-production.
ReplyDeleteI wonder why it's discussed in the Xpress today, given that the source is a TV show broadcast some time ago?
I guess if the film still existed it would have surfaced by now.
Mat.
Also, Wisit didn't mention the names of the studio or the lab.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure why Soopsip decided to write about this in today's paper. Sometimes it takes awhile for time and space to open up and allow things like this to filter through.