July 28th, 2008


oh, *hell* no.

Tony Jaa is missing.

I have been wondering WTF is up with ONG BAK 2, Jaa's directorial debut. It's been in the works for two years. A promo reel came out a little while ago, but while it looked bad-ass it made no sense whatsoever. The promo reel didn't convey much of a sense of what the film is actually about, only that there's a lot of brutality and the flick is balls-out insane.

Jaa is the greatest action star in the world today. He's often compared to Jackie Chan (at his brilliant peak) and Bruce Lee; I'd go back farther and call him the inheritor of Douglas Fairbanks. He's that good. He makes movies about himself looking for stuff: in ONG BAK he's looking for the head of a sacred statue; in TOM YUM GOONG (THE PROTECTOR), he's looking for kidnapped elephants. His most frequently uttered bit of dialogue is, "Where is [X]?!!"

Then he jumps across the room and knees some poor bastard in the chest. As you do.

Twitch Film, which pays attention to foreign films, gives a little more detail. Apparently, Jaa may not be entirely missing so much as laying low:


Prachya Pinkaew, who directed Jaa's previous films but fell out with him a while back, is being hired to come in and finish the picture. Presuming they can find Tony Jaa.