The sharp eyes over at TonyJaa.org have noticed a couple of things about the trio of new posters for Ong-Bak 2 that were recently unleashed all over the Internet.
First, is that the release date has been pushed back one day to December 5 -- His Majesty the King's birthday in Thailand, which is a more auspicious day than December 4, which would have been the usual Thursday release date for the film.
Second, and more importantly, is a familiar face on one of the posters -- why yes, it's Dan Chupong, the leading man of Born to Fight, Dynamite Warrior and Queens of Langkasuka whose star is on the rise at Sahamongkol Film International.
Ong-Bak 2 will represent the first time Thailand's two top male martial arts stars have shared the screen in major roles. (Diaw Chupong played "Bodyguard 4" in Ong-Bak in 2003, but I'm not sure I could pick him out of the crowd of bad guys who are mowed down by Tony.)
According to Thep at TonyJaa.org, Chupong plays Poot Saang Ka, the Devil Crow, who is one of the most fearsome enemies of Jaa's character Tien. And it seems like he's been added kind of late in the production, and indeed, Thep says, Chupong's scenes were shot in late October.
Ong-Bak 2 also stars another Queens of Langkasuka actor -- underneath a great bushy black beard is 1970s leading man Sorapong Chatree. He's one of the men who rescues Tony's character as a child. TonyJaa.blog.fr has photos from the set.
Last is more of a rumor than anything, according to another thread on TonyJaa.org, that work is beginning on Ong-Bak 3, with Tom Yum Goong scribe Kongdej Jaturanrasamee mentioned as a screenwriter, Dan Chupong and Nui Kessarin from Born to Fight in the cast, and it make use of the 25-million-baht Khmer palace built for Ong-Bak 2 by production designer Ek Iemchuen.
Update: Kong Rithdee has a story for Variety.
Update 2: Twitch's Todd Brown has a followup.
Related posts:
(Via Twitch, 24 Frames per Second, Deknang/Popcornmag)
Thank you so much for affirming that the person he's fighting in that poster IS indeed Dan Chupong, I saw that poster tonight at the House RCA and though I was imagining things since the thought of these two paired is just too awesome to fathom! Interesting to hear about the possibility of Ong Bak 3, makes sense that they'd want to get the most out of that Khmer palace investment though. They should just do as the Shaws Brothers did and keep it around to film countless movies in. I wonder if they'd even consider letting Tony film the next one? Well, maybe CO-direct! :)
ReplyDeleteThis is the Muay Thai equivalent to Gene Kelly on screen with Fred Astaire. I hope the film is as good as the poster.
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