Poj Anon mulls which leftovers to reheat next

HAVING JUST escorted his comedy “Mor 6/5 Pak Ma Tha Mae Nak” home from the cinema after a successful run, director Poj Anon is wondering what to do next. He’s got several options, and all we know for sure right now is that it won’t be another comedy or another horror.
Poj tells Filmmax magazine he’s currently zeroing in on three projects, including remakes of the massive hit “Satree Lek” (“The Iron Ladies”) and “Loke Thung Bai Hai Nai Khong Diaw” (“Romantic Blue”), the top-grossing film of 1995. Hang on – wasn’t “Iron Ladies” a comedy? Yes, but Poj says he’ll be revamping it in his own style – and in 3D – so it will be completely different from Yongyooth Thongkongtoon’s version.
Poj already has the rights to “Romantic Blue”, the ’90s edition of which was the first movie made by Rachen Limtrakul and RS Film. It’s about two brothers (played by teen idols Somchai Khemklad and Pramote Sangsorn in the original) who fall in love with the same girl (remember Suthida “Nuke” Kasemsan Na Ayutthaya?). Plans go askew, though, when they get involved with a gang that steals motorcycles (led by Surasak Wongthai).
In fact it was Poj – then the editor of Ther Kab Chan, the most popular teenagers’ magazine at the time, who “introduced” Somchai and Pramote to show business. Now he’s got to find more like them to fill the teen roles of the reincarnated “Blue”. However Somchai, while too old to play one of the brothers again, has been cast as ringleader of the robbery gang.
 
Period playtime
With plenty of time on his hands while his epic film “The Legend of King Naresuan” continues to evolve at glacial speed, director MC Chatrichalerm “Than Mui” Yukol is keeping busy with a TV series that also harks back to olden times.
“Pantai Norasingh” is based on a famous story from the Ayutthaya Period. Sanpetch, the Tiger King, has a servant named Pantai working the rudder of his royal barge. Pantai loses control in a strong river current and the bow of the barge slams into a tree on the bank and snaps off.
Pantai faces the death penalty for putting the king’s life in danger. It was just an accident, though, so the monarch forgives him, but Pantai wants to pay the penalty, arguing that making an exception would undermine public respect for the law. He is duly executed. The king builds a shrine in his honour where the bow of the barge is ritually installed.
Major Wanchana Sawasdee, seemingly unfazed at the typecasting, gets to play the king on TV too, just as he does in the title role of the “Naresuan” movie franchise. Natthawut Por Sakidjai was originally cast as Pantai, but that job now belongs to Pongsakorn “Toey” Mettarikanon, well known for his supporting role as Bak Joi in the episode “Khun Chai Ratchanon” of the TV series “Suphab Burut Juthathep”. Pimdao “Madmee” Panichsamai is playing Pantai’s wife.
The series is filmed and wrapped and awaits only a scheduling decision at Channel 3. Will it run alongside the usual gamut of dramas at 6.30pm, when the younger viewers tend to tune in, or in primetime starting just after 8, when expectations are higher for the content and the casting? Than Mui votes for primetime, saying he’s already edited the episodes to accommodate the customary nine commercial breaks, whereas shows in the early evening have only five breaks.
“The story is for adults and isn’t appropriate for children,” he says. “I believe the viewers will be mostly fans of ‘King Naresuan’ and they won’t even have arrived home earlier in the evening. Anyway, he adds, “If it’s going to be on earlier, I want it shown on Channel 3 HD because it was shot in high definition.”