The Sanctuary 2, starring Russell Wong in a story about a man on a searching for an emerald Buddha along the Thai-Cambodian border, is part of three-picture deal between the Los Angeles-based Epic Pictures and Thailand's Film Frame Productions.
The three titles will be English-language action movies with recognizable male leads.
Sanctuary 2 is planned for release late this year.
That's according a report from the Cannes Film Market by Screen Daily. The article quotes Epic's Patrick Ewald:
We are going to produce a series of action films that will blow people away. These films are going to take a Western story sensibility and combine it with Thai action skills and production value that will deliver on all levels.”
Film Frame, run by Thanapon Maliwan, released The Sanctuary (สามพันโบก, Sam Phan Bok) last year. That was an English-and-Thai-language martial-arts action drama that starred martial-arts actor and stuntman Mike B. as the hero and an icy smooth Russell Wong as the lead villain.
Film Frame has its roots in a production company run by Thanapon's father, Chokchai Maliwan, who produced a string of the early 1990s action titles featuring Panna Rittikrai and Tony Jaa.
And the Screen Daily article mentions those old titles: Spirited Killer, Hard Gun, Fighter’s Blood and Battle Warrior, as being part of a "slate" being touted at the Marché Du Film by Epic Pictures. The movies have previously been released on DVD in the U.S. by such companies as the now-shuttered BCI Eclipse and Mill Creek.
Other titles in the Epic stable include Skills starring Swedish parkour artist Marcus Gustafsson by director Johannes Pinter. Swedish skater grrl My Magnusson and martial artist Tim Man (Ong-Bak 2) also star.
Sanctuary just got a DVD release stateside a couple weeks ago. I will have my review up on Tuesday. Based on the final shot in that film, it was clear someone was keeping the door open for a possible sequel. Now if only some really good Thai movies would get DVD releases in R1.
ReplyDeleteWait, so are they changing the sequel to have Wong as the star, or will he just "star" in the sense that he will be in the movie? Curious.
ReplyDeleteI've seen the Thai release for this one, and other than having a bit of decent action, I felt it wasn't all that good to tell the truth.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to see some international interest in utilizing the amazing amount of talent available in the Thai film industry, but for true success they'll need something more than was available in "Sanctuary", that's for certain. Anybody can make quickly forgotten B-movies for direct to DVD sales....