Thailand is set to host its biggest foreign shoot to date -Initial Entertainment Group's remake of the Pang Brothers gangster thriller Bangkok Dangerous - which is scheduledto start shooting for three months from this August.

According to the Thailand FilmOffice, the remake, starring Nicolas Cage, will bring in $5.8m (220m baht) tothe Thai economy - outstripping Oliver Stone's Alexander which contributed more than $5.2m two years ago.

Bangkok Dangerous is understood to be budgeted at around $40m while Alexander, which also filmed in UK studios and Morocco, had a budget of $155m.

The shoot will take placemainly in Bangkok through local fixer Living Films, which previouslyhandled two Hallmark mini-series, Blackbeardand Mysterious Island, in Thailand.

Initial acquired English-languageremake rights to the film from Thai entertainment group BEC. In addition toCage, who plays a hitman who can speak (not deaf-and-dumb as in the originalThai film), the remake features a pan-Asian cast, including Thai actor ChakritYamnarm, who plays the hitman's errand boy. A Hong Kong or Japanese actress, to be confirmed in two weeks, will play his loveinterest.

The project is the secondEnglish-language film for the Pang Brothers who recently completed The Messengers, produced by Sam Raimi,for Mandate Pictures and Sony.

"It's a challenge to remakeone's own film, but it has been six years since the original was made and ourdirectorial style has changed a lot," Oxide Pang told ScreenDaily. "There will be new chemistry and more action sceneswith the bigger budget."

Oxide is currently in Singapore on a promotional tour with actress Lee Sinje forChinese horror thriller Re-cycle,which was mostly filmed in Thailand.

Earlier this year, the duoseparately directed two Chinese-language productions in Thailand for Hong Kong's Universe Films:Oxide directed psychological thriller Diaryand Danny directed suspense thriller Forest Of Death. Both are in post-production for year-end delivery.

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