Website and cast for Pen-ek's Headshot

Headshot, the new project in development by director Pen-ek Ratanaruang, now has a website.

The film-noir hitman tale also has a cast attached: "Peter" Noppachai Jayanama will play the hitman Tul. The Legend of King Naresuan II and Angulimala action star previously appeared in Pen-ek's Nymph and the director's Sawasdee Bangkok short Silence.

His co-star will be Cris Horwang, the Bangkok Traffic (Love) Story leading lady who's currently burning up the Bangkok big screen in Yuthlert Sippapak's hitman-romance Saturday Killer. In Headshot she'll be the love interest named Erin.

Filming is expected to take place from next month until sometime in January, with the possible release slated for May 2011.

The movie, based on the novel Fon Tok Kuen Fah (ฝนตกขึ้นฟ้า) by S.E.A. Write Award-winning writer and Silpathorn Award laureate Win Lyovarin, is being touted as Pen-ek's return to the crime-drama genre. Here's the blurb from the website:

Tul, a hitman, is shot in the head during one assignment. He wakes up after a two-month coma to find that he sees everything upside down, literally. He goes back to his job, but his new affliction doesn't make things easy. Doubt starts to set in about what he does for living. But karma's a bitch, and the past starts to catch up with him. Then he meets a girl who turns his world even more upside down. Plus, who was trying to kill him in the first place?

From the director 6ixtynin9 and Last Life in the Universe comes a modern film noir about a man trying to forget his past but his past – and karma – won't forget him. Adapted from the novel Fon Tok Kuen Fah ("rain falling up to the sky") by award-winning writer Win Lyovarin.

Produced by Pawas Sawatchaiyamet and Raymond Phathanavirangoon, Headshot is among the scripts being pitched at the Tokyo Project Gathering from October 25 to 28. The movie has also been supported by the Culture Ministry's Thai Khem Kaeng (Strong Thailand) fund.

Also in the Tokyo Project Gathering is Dessert Queen by Beautiful Boxer helmer Ekachai Uekrongtham. It's described as "a sweet and magical fantasy drama ... about a mysterious encounter between a young modern Thai woman and a Japanese female head chef of the 17th century Thai Royal Court."

(Via New Territories)