Female stunt performer Wiriya Caesar will step up into the lead performer role in upcoming Thai action film “The 24.” The film project is being launched this week in the Cannes Market by new international sales firm Boz Pictures.
Wiriya (aka Porntip Wiriya, aka “Fan”) has previously been a stunt double for Mary-Elizabeth Winstead in “Kate” and Golshifteh Farahani in “Extraction,” and has other credits on “Thirteen Lives” and “Hidden Strike.”
In “The 24” she will star as an assassin who wakes up with a time bomb strapped to her body. She has clear instructions to kill a hit list of 24 members of the Bangkok underground, with each successful hit buying her more time alive.
Caesar is joined in the cast by Japan’s Sakaguchi Tak (“Re:Born,” “One Percenter,” “Versus”), Dan Chupong (“Ong Bak 1 &2,” “Born to Fight”), Sunny Pang (“The Night Comes for Us,” “Headshot” and Gareth Evans’ upcoming “Havoc”) and Simon Kook (“Ip Man 3,” “Mayhem”).
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The film, which will shoot in the fourth quarter of this year, is written and directed by Lee Thongkham (“The Maid,” “The Lake,” “Kitty the Killer”).
Fight choreography is headed by Felix Betancourt (Netflix’s “The Gray Man,” “Day Shift” and upcoming Dave Bautista actioner “The Killer’s Game”).
Production is through Thongkham Films, B-01 Films and Hugo Luquet’s newly launched Paris- and Bangkok-based Boz Pictures. Luquet is a veteran of the Paris- and Hong Kong-based sales firm All Rights Entertainment.
“Bone-crunching, down-and-dirty Thai martial arts cinema seemingly went on a long hiatus after the glory days of ‘Ong Bak,’ ‘The Protector’ and others. With ‘The 24,’ we intend to put it squarely back at the forefront of action cinema with a mixture of established names and new talent, as well as illustrious international guests,” said Luquet and Thongkam in a statement. “This is the first in a string of action films being planned.”
