The Pang Brothers' Bangkok Dangerous is to receive the Hollywood treatment with Oscar winning actor Nicholas Cage set to play the lead role of a hitman in a remake of the 1999 gangster thriller.

 

 

Prior to the phenomenal success of The Eye in 2002, the Pang Brothers first made their mark with Bangkok Dangerous, a Thai film that drew favorable reviews in the international festival circuit.

 

More importantly, a US studio subsequently bought the English remake rights to the original film. The new version is set to be a big budget Hollywood production, which is due to start a three-month shoot from August in Thailand where the original film was set.

 

The Pang Brothers will return to helm the remake of their own film, which features Cage as a hitman who can speak (not deaf-and-dumb as in the original) while a Hong Kong or Japanese actress is tipped to play his character's love interest.

 

The project is the second English-language film for the twin brothers who recently completed horror thriller The Messengers, produced by Spider-Man director Sam Raimi.

 

Hollywood studios have also snapped up the English remake rights to the Pang Brothers' The Eye and its sequel The Eye 2. But they are not attached as directors to the remakes.

 

Meanwhile, the Pang Brothers' latest horror thriller Re-cycle crossed the HK$10 million mark in nine days in Hong Kong, a remarkable feat for a local production and a big boost to the stagnant local box office.

 

Over in Malaysia and Singapore, the picture opened at number two over its first weekend.

 

(hkfilmart July 13, 2006)