Wisit back in the ring with Muay Thai project at CineMart

Although Tears of the Black Tiger director Wisit Sasanatieng has said he's done with making movies for studios, it doesn't mean he's quitting filmmaking entirely.

Following the example of such Thai indie filmmakers as Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Aditya Assarat and Anocha Suwichakornpong, the industry veteran is looking at overseas film festivals for money. He's looking to make his first independent project.

It's called Suriya, and he'll be pitching it at CineMart during the International Film Festival Rotterdam's XL edition where he's also serving on the Tiger Awards jury and screening his latest feature The Red Eagle.

Here's more about Wisit's new project:

Suriya is a biography of a mysterious Muay Thai boxer who lived in the 1940s in the Northeast of Thailand. A true story of a small man who chooses to live his life heedlessly: a life of joy and suffering, of beauty and misfortune. A life that expires so fast, though its owner doesn’t care if anybody would waste his time remembering it.

His name is Suriya Lookthung.

Trois Film Company Ltd. is listed as the production company.

Wisit says he wants to make the movie "just for fun".

And it should be.

Update: I missed another Thai entry on the CineMart list: Karma Police, by Visra Vichit-Vadakan, produced by Hidden Rooster Films. It previously received support from the IFFR's Hubert Bals Fund.