With its tropical beaches, emerald rice paddies and expanses of wild jungle, Thailand is a natural choice for foreign film crews looking for exotic locations to shoot in Asia.
But the government hopes Hollywood will soon look to Thailand as a highly skilled Asian film-making centee with a lot more to offer than pretty scenery.
"Productions in Hollywood can create any place, anywhere," said Pakinee Chaisana, executive producer of the Sixth Element, the international section of Thai entertainment company GMM Grammy.
PHOTO: AFP
One recent example is Jackie Chan's latest action flick, the Hong Kong-financed, US$35 million Highenders, which has just completed filming in a massive exhibition hall on the outskirts of Bangkok. Some 250 craftspeople, mostly Thai, worked to create the gloomy interior of a sixteenth century Irish castle, complete with twisting stairwells and Gothic archways.
Sculptors, usually employed on Thai temple restoration projects, crafted the heads of bulls, goats and deer that dotted the interior.
"They are the best sculptors I've met in my life," said standby art director Connor Dennison. "They're phenomenal."
Cheap, too -- and that's the bottom line for international film-makers looking to shift production out of high-cost locations like the US and Europe.
"The industry is now saying to the foreign filmmakers ... the quality is high here for your budget," said Pakinee.
Industry insiders say that with last year's threatened actors' strike in the US, a window of opportunity has opened for Thailand.
"There is a backlog of US productions looking for places to go now," said Don Balfour, managing director of Bangkok-based production company Phenix Films Asia. "For producers looking to film in Asia, Thailand is the best choice," he said.
The Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia are seen as unsafe, Hong Kong is expensive, China can strangle producers in red tape, and Thailand's poorer neighbors lack the infrastructure filmmakers require, Balfour said.
But the next year will be crunch time for Thailand as its bid to establish an Asian Hollywood is put to the test.
"We need to get it right. I don't think the current focus on Thailand will come around again," Balfour said.
Success will depend on better cooperation between the Thai government and film-makers who in the past have criticized the bureaucratic approach of the Thai Film Board, which issues the necessary permits.
Industry observers say things have improved since Sidhichai Jayant took over as Film Board director a year ago, revising actors' tax schedules and amending old permit regulations that had discouraged film-makers from heading here.
Sidhichai said he wants to set up a government committee charged with "helping facilitate foreign filmmakers in Thailand."
"Permits can now be issued very quickly, even quicker than in the United States," he said.
The verdict so far is good. "He's actively cut a lot of red tape, he's liaising between groups, he's giving us help in talking to higher people in ministries when we need it," Pakinee said.
But Ctar Sudasnd, chairman of production house Siam Studios, believes more must be done to ease the path of foreign film-makers who are often tripped up by Thailand's free-wheeling approach to business.
"A lot of people go away with a nasty taste in their mouth, saying that `Hey, this is a ripoff place man,'" he said. "So we need to address that."
Ctar said it was vital Thailand looked to the future and ensured a constant stream of talent continued to come on line.
"Our crews are fantastic. But how many crews do we have? Who's looking after the training of the next generation of crews?" he asked.
"The guy who did James Bond in 1974, he doesn't move so fast anymore," he said, referring to The Man with the Golden Gun, which was partly filmed around the dramatic limestone coast of southern Thailand.
The consensus is that Thailand only has the capacity to supply crews for three major productions at any time. And demand over the next year could exceed that.
"We have skilful people, but we don't have enough of them," Sudhichai acknowledged.
Nevertheless, the Film Board is still hoping to attract three or four foreign productions with budgets of over 200 million baht (US$4.6 million) each this year.
Some 59 foreign films were at least partly produced in Thailand last year.
Sudhichai said he also aims to overcome the negative press that surrounded probably the best-known film to be made here -- The Beach, starring heart throb Leonardo Di Caprio.
Thai environmentalists grabbed headlines around the world after complaining that the film crew tore away native plants alone the dunes of stunning Phi Phi Island and planted coconut trees in order to create their idea of paradise.
"Our image was not so good after the shooting of The Beach," Sudhichai admitted. "But I think things have changed since then."
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)