Twitch has details about Ong-Bak 3 from the American Film Market.The plot:
The legend of Ong-Bak 3 begins after Tien (Tony Jaa) has lost his fighting skills and his beloved step-father at the Garuda's Wing cliff from the raid led by Jom Rachan (Saranyu Wongkrajang). Tien is brought back to life with the help from Pim (Primrata Dech-udom) as well as Mhen (Petchtai Wongkamlao) and the Kana Khone villagers. Deep into the meditation taught by Phra Bua (Nirutti Sirijanya), Tien finally is able to achieve Nathayut. His talents are put to the test again when his rivals including the Golden-Armored King's Guard (Supakorn 'Tok' Kitsuwan), the mysterious killers in black, and Bhuti Sangkha (Dan Chupong) return for the final massive showdown.
So not only will Dan Chupong be returning in the form of a black bird, it appears Petchtai "Mum Jokmok" Wongkamlao's village idiot character, briefly seen in a comic moment in Ong-Bak 2, will be expanded, and the romantic angle that amounted to very little in the -- I keep wanting to say first movie -- will likely play a bigger part here too.
Twitch also has news on Prachya Pinkaew's next project, and it's not the English-language City of Angels with Robin Shou, which is still in development. It's Ta Bang Marn, a Thai action drama "about a group of village girls who team up to protect the 'special child'." This sounds like it could be the Seven Samurai-inspired story that was hinted at in Udine earlier this year.
Prachya's name also came up in a recent Variety piece that attached the Ong-Bak and Chocolate helmer to Elephant White or White Elephant, which would star Djimon Hounsou. I haven't seen much else about that though.
Also at AFM, Twitch's Todd Brown checks out the Phranakorn booth, which has a big slate and is promoting its future projects, among them the very fun-sounding comedy horror, The Intruder, which stars "Golf" Akara Amarttayakul and a bunch of snakes.
Sahamongkol CEO, Somsak Techarattanaprasert, has also announced that after Ta Beng Man, Jija Yanin will move on to Chocolate 2, and then a Hong Kong film directed by Peter Chan. I don't know whether Prachya Pinkaew will be directing Chocolate 2 or not, as he seems to be attached to about 7,000 other projects. Although personally I'd rather he make A Grade Thai movies than B Grade Hollywood films (if the careers of Hong Kong directors Tsui Hark, John Woo, Ringo Lam etc. are any indication).
ReplyDeleteTa Beng Man has been sounding interesting these past few months, with Prachya spending a lot of time developing it. It was supposed to be already underway, but more prep time was given so that Jija can regain some of the weight she lost filming 'Raging Phoenix', and because another of the film's stars, 'Kratae' Supaksorn Chaimongkol, is currently working with Panna Rittikrai on another film (preparation work for her action scenes?). Hopefully, Ta Beng Man, or 'Ta Bang Marn' as it appears in the Twitch article, will be a fun film!
thanks for the heads up!
ReplyDeleteThe poster and plot sounds sick!
The plot makes perfect sense!
I mean Tien fighting Black crow with broken bones!?? serioulsy man, he'll never win!
"The biggest fight of all is with himself" SICK!!!! Two tony jaa's? LOL! badass
thanks for another heads up Peter.
ReplyDeleteBut I really didn't like Chocolate's storyline, though it was unique but:/
Unless Jeeja stars as a differernt character.
I mean chocolate focuses too much on so many characters. The father, mother, villains...:/