Wednesday, August 19, 2009

อะไร, ข้ากังวล?

Why should the Thai film Ong-Bak 2 be any exception? No production is without its minor mishaps. During production, director and star Tony Jaa, walked off the set and vanished for 2 months without a trace. The film had allegedly gone 200 million baht over production...

It was believed that Jaa went into the jungle to go on a retreat to unwind from the stress. Prachya Pinkaew, the director of Ong-Bak and Tom Yum Goong, was brought in to see if Ong-Bak 2 could be salvaged on time for its scheduled Dec. 9 release date. But with about 70 to 80 percent of the film completed, they still need Tony to act in the scenes, unless they were going to use stunt doubles, CGI or cardboard heads like they did to finish Bruce Lee's last film Game of Death.

Eventually Tony's mentor Panna Rittikrai was asked to search for Tony and try to get the production back on track. Panna is said to have met with Tony once or twice, but no solution was reached. Again, Tony vanished! As a last resort Panna went looking for Tony in his favorite meditation caves, but there was no sign of him.

Finally Tony's family in Surin Province saw him during the week of Buddhist Lent, and they denied he was in the forest practicing black magic, as reports have suggested. Executive Producer Sia Jiang, was quoted as saying that Jaa did not in fact 'disappear', he asked for time away to contemplate martial-arts moves and stunts for the film's big ending climactic scenes. Tony on the other hand denies every having stopped filming, and also that he spent 300 million baht. He says the movie was budgeted at 232 million baht, but he's only received 117 million baht. Jaa claims financiers cut him off, so he used his own money to pay workers on the set, and has gone broke in the process. He's now behind on his mortgage, and his electricity has been disconnected. He claims to have, "...sought out a quiet place to figure a way out of his problems".

Despite the troubles that surrounded Tony Jaa and the making of Ong-Bak 2 has been completed and released... and it is a truly exhilarating film showcasing all of Jaa's incredible talent... by far his best film yet!


Thursday, August 13, 2009

Baader-Meinhof Wagen

SUPERFLEX - BURNING CAR










Ok, so this isn't a BMW it's actually a Mercedes Benz. Though the Baader-Meinhof Gang stole as many Mercedes as BMWs, they were forever linked to the Bavarian cars in part because of the popular reworking of its name from Bayerische Motoren Werke to Baader Meinhof Wagen. During their rein of terror police would periodically set up road blocks and stop only passing BMWs. Often the gang members would be able to drive unmolested past the roadblocks in their freshly stolen Mercedes. Frustrated BMW owners took to placing bumper stickers on their cars indicating to police that the driver was not, in fact, a member of the Baader-Meinhof Gang.




"I do not belong to the Baader-Meinhof Group"

Friday, August 7, 2009