Trailer for stuntman Mike B.'s The Sanctuary

Brave Mike B. will be returning with The Sanctuary, another gritty action-drama set in Bangkok. He's a Muay Thai warrior wrongly accused of stealing a sacred emerald. So he's on the run from the police as he tries to retrieve the jewel from a crime kingpin and return it to its sacred place.

Veteran actor Russell Wong stars as the leading bad guy, with the fiercely intense actress Patharawarin Timkul (1999's Bangkok Dangerous, Body #19) as his gun-toting henchwoman. Intira Jaroenpura (Nang Nak, Naresuan 2) also stars.

Produced by Las Vegas-based Birch Tree Entertainment, India's Infinity Filmed Entertainment and Film Frame Productions, Sanctuary was unveiled a year ago. You can check the Twitch archives for more details. And Kung Fu Cinema has more as well.

Mike B. and director Thanapon Maliwan are part of a divergent branch of the Panna Rittikrai-Tony Jaa action empire, as it was under Thanapon's father's Pechpanna productions that Panna made his early low-budget action flicks featuring no-holds-barred dangerous stunts. Pairote "Michael B." Boongerd was a stuntman on Jaa's Ong-Bak and Panna's Born to Fight.

The Sanctuary promises more of the same kind of bravura action scenes, with the fighter leading with his knees, elbows and dispatching his foes with balletic cartwheel kicks.

From what I've heard, the plan behind The Sanctuary is to make it a mostly English-language film that'll have a broad appeal on the international market. And conquer the world this film will -- in heavily stylized slow motion.

Don't understand what I mean? Watch the trailer. It's embedded below.



(Via Bangkok 1080 and Kung Fu Cinema)