Vithaya finally gets a chance to stop killing people

The movie has also brought Vithaya (who only started acting five years ago) bucket loads of offers. They too are mostly foreign movies being shot in Thailand, but there are so many scripts arriving in the mail that Vithaya says he can’t read them all (he’s a slow reader, he says) and he wouldn’t have time for all of them anyway. Sorting them out becomes easier when he starts discarding the ones that would simply replicate his vengeful, cold-blooded vigilante character from “Only God”. Vithaya doesn’t want to be typecast as a vicious killer, not even one that has God on his side.
The scripts that Vithaya did accept have thus far resulted in two Thai movies and a Thai TV series already finished.
The first of the movies is “Chaovaret: The Last Executioner”, a biographical drama about the rock ’n’ roller-turned-prison official who ended up being the country’s last executioner to wield a rifle rather than lethal syringes. Vithaya has the title role and co-wrote the script. Tom Weller is again his director, following up on the success of 2011’s “Sop Mai Ngiab” (“Mindfulness and Murder”), which earned Vithaya several award nominations for his turn as a cop-turned-monk/sleuth.
“Chaovaret” is due in theatres in June and co-stars Penpak Sirikul, David Asavanond and Nirut Sirijanya.
The other movie is also biographical, about Sueb Nakhasathian, the conservationist who committed suicide after decades of struggling to protect nature. It has Peter Noppachai Jayanama in the title role.
In the high-octane Cinemax action series “Strike Back”, hitting TV screens this season, Vithaya plays a rogue cop pursued by two special agents from England.
And there’s still more to come, Vithaya revealed while attending the opening of the Thailand International Destination Film Festival on Tuesday. He was there to see “Trafficker”, the directorial debut of Larry Smith, who was the cinematographer on “Only God”. Vithaya said he’s got a long-awaited project ready to roll with Pen-ek Ratnaraung, “Samui Song”.
Vithaya told The Nation last year that, since he was already well known as a star of foreign films shooting in Thailand, he hoped to get into some Thai movies, and he’d love to work with Pen-ek. “So when Pen-ek called I got goose bumps!” he told us Tuesday. “I kidded him, ‘I was waiting for your call!’”
Pen-ek announced the project and named the cast at the recent Hong Kong Film Mart, but filming has yet to begin. It ought to be a more pleasant experience all around for Vithaya. He’s not a cruel killer in this one – just a nutty cult leader – and he’s got a beautiful wife. Yes, and she’s played by Ploy Chermarn Bunyasak, who last worked with Pen-ek on “Last Life in the Universe” in 2003.