I pity the poor actor who gets notes from Tony Jaa on set. I’ve seen directors yelling at the cast before, but I’ve never seen them get pummeled in a rain of fists, elbows and knees – Tony Jaa’s specialty. The diminutive Thai actor, recently the star of the nigh-upon-unwatchable The Protector, is moving to the director’s chair with his next film, Ong Bak 2.
Fansite TonyJaa.org has some details about the film, including the bewildering fact that it’s not a sequel to Ong Bak – these will be all new characters and situations! There will be elephants involved, though, for all of you Protector fans who wanted more pachyderm-related carnage. The movie starts shooting in Thailand next month.
Just in case you think you’ve seen everything Jaa has to offer, this film will be upping the stakes by including Khon Dance, a traditional Thai danceform, combined with Muay Thai and ancient Thai weapons. That sentence is all thai’d up.