As big fans of martial arts films, we’ve been following the career rebirth of Tony Jaa rather closely. Jaa — the Thai actor who rose to fame in unbelievably creative martial arts films Ong Bak and The Protector — went a little… off by creating two nonsensical Ong Bak prequels and then becoming a monk. Thankfully he’s back in the film world and on track (we hope) working on a sequel to The Protector (Tom Yum Goong 2).
But what else does Jaa have in the pipeline? According to Twitch, the producer and director behind KL Gangster — a Malaysian crime film released this year that has already become the highest grossing film in Malaysian history — are offering Jaa a role in KL Gangster 2. While the original hasn’t gotten much of a release outside of Malaysia, adding an international superstar like Jaa to the cast of the sequel would certainly help increase the profile of Malaysian cinema worldwide.
That is, of course, if producer Datuk Yusof Haslam and director Syamsul Yusof can get Jaa. Twitch says that Jaa is too busy filming Tom Yum Goong 2 and hasn’t yet accepted a role in an international production despite numerous offers (including Rush Hour 3, believe it or not). Still, I’d have to point out that Jaa’s done wackier things with his career so I wouldn’t discount anything that his name is attached to.
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