Pen-ek's next project is a film-noir hitman movie

Since the release of Nymph last year, Pen-ek Ratanaruang's been earning cash by making TV commercials.

But he's also been at work on his new movie, Fon Tok Kuen Fah (ฝนตกขึ้นฟ้า), which is among the projects slated to receive money from the Culture Ministry's controversial Thai Khem Kaeng (Strong Thailand) creative-economy stimulus fund.

He's due to start shooting next month. That's what I heard anyway, and was asked to report it as a "rumor".

The movie is based on a 2007 novel by Win Lyovarin (วินทร์ เลียววาริณ).

Translated roughly as "rain falling up to the sky", the book is described as a "film noir novel" about a hitman.

Excuse me while I pick my jaw back up off the floor and stick my eyeballs back in their sockets.

Pen-ek working on a film-noir hitman tale?

I think that's going to get fanboys excited, particularly the guys who were left flat by his past two romantic thrillers, 2007's hotel-set marriage drama Ploy and the haunted forest tale Nymph.

Win Lyovarin is a two-time S.E.A. Write-award winning writer and is a fellow Silpathorn Award laureate with Pen-ek. Among his tales was Puen Yai Jome Salad, which he adapted into a massive screenplay for Nonzee Nimibutr's pirate adventure Queens of Langkasuka (also known as Legend of the Tsunami Warrior).

Pen-ek previously worked with another S.E.A. Write Award-winning writer, Prabda Yoon, which resulted in two films, the pan-Asian collaborations with cinematographer Christopher Doyle and actor Asano Tadanobu, Last Life in the Universe and Invisible Waves.

Nymph (Nang Mai), is still on the festival circuit. It played at the recent Shanghai International Film Festival and is due to screen in Rome's Asian Film Festival.