Tomb Raider revisited:
Thai stuntmen show Hollywood their style.
In the Hollywood movie "Tomb Raider, The Cradle of Life", Angelina Jolie plays the role of the sexy super hero Lara Croft, heir to the Croft Mansion and adventurous explorer in search of ancient and historical artifacts.
This time, Lara Croft must stop a madman by the name of Dr. Jonathan Reece, played by Ciarán Hinds, from retrieving the Pandora's Box, which is buried in a mysterious location only known by the name of "The Cradle of Life". This Pandora's Box holds the key to life, and once opened, the box will unleash a fury of pain and suffering upon all those around it.
Stuntmen from Thailand have put their mark on the Hollywood film industry, after professionally battling with actress Angelina Jolie (Lara Croft) in this super production of "Tomb Raider, The Cradle of Life", a movie based on the hit video game
The 15 stuntmen from Thailand play the role of the Chinese mercenaries in "Lara Croft's Tomb Raider". Film Industry sources say this is the first time that Thai stuntmen were enrolled and brought from Thailand to star in a mayor Hollywood movie.
Production manager, Mark Pestonji, from Harmonic Film Production Company, said that the scenes where Angelina Jolie battles the Thai stuntmen was filmed in locations in South Africa and England.
The team of stuntmen from Thailand was led by Kavi Sirikanaerat, who worked on the Thai movie action blockbuster "Ong-Bak". In Tomb Raider the Thai stuntmen were required to jump from a high cliff and drive super fast cars in an attempt to prevent Angelina Jolie from finding the ancient and mysterious glowing orb.
in Lara Croft's Tomb Raider movie, nearly most of the Chinese mercenaries played by the Thai stuntmen are eliminated.
Thailand's "Ong-Bak" film director, Khun Prachaya Pinkaew said that Angelina Jolie was at first bemused by the presence of Thai stuntmen in the movie. She even asked the film producers why they had to import stuntmen all the way from Thailand instead of hiring the regular Chinese movie stuntmen from Hong Kong.
Prachaya Pinkaew said the movie producers most probably opted for Thai stuntmen because they were cheap and more versatile than the Hong Kong actors. In Hong Kong, each stuntman has a specialty, for instance, a stuntman who jumps from a high cliff, would only do high jumps. The stuntman who drives fast cars will only drive fast cars.
But stuntmen from Thailand are much more versatile. They could and would even jump from a high cliff while driving a fast car, Prachaya Pinkaew said.
Later on, Angelina Jolie, admitted in an interview that she was very impressed with the professionalism of the stuntmen from Thailand.
Angelina Jolie was asked how long and how much she had to train for the very impressive scene, where Lara Croft fights the Chinese (Thai) sword fighters with her rifle?
The Thai stuntmen came over to train me, Angelina Jolie said. I thought that the Thais would just practice with me for about half and hour and then go, but they didn't leave me alone for two and a half hours, and taught me a impressive fighting scene consisting out of 26 different moves.
All those different moves were very complicated, and some moves were even dangerous if not executed in the right way. So the Thai stuntmen patiently took their time with me, one big step by one, and we practiced and practiced.
Finally, in the end, I thought it was so good, because I had practiced all the moves so many times over and over with the Thai stuntmen. But when we were shooting the scene and the Thais charged at me swinging those big swords, things really got serious and my heart was beating.
It was only then that I really appreciated the professionalism and the hard training from the Thai stunt team. I really learned a lot from those Thai people. I've been joking to friends, as I can't even fry an omelet for my son, but with the fight training I received from the stuntmen from Thailand, I could kill someone with a simple broom stick.
