Acclaimed Thai author Pen-ek Ratanaruang teams up once again with veteran Asia-based cinematographer Christopher Doyle for a subversive psychological thriller set in the colorful world of Thai cuisine.
Titled Morte cucinaSet in Bangkok, the film follows a talented young female chef named Sao who has a chance encounter with a man who sexually assaulted her when she was a teenager. “Using her talents in the kitchen, Sao sets her revenge plot in motion – with a rather unexpected outcome,” reads the film’s logline.
Morte cucina is co-written by Pen-ek Ratanaruang and Kongdej Jaturanrasamee (Hungry, Faces of Anne). It will be Pen-ek’s first feature film since his noir crime thriller Samui songwhich premiered at the 2017 Venice Film Festival. The project brings the Thai author and Doyle back together for the first time since their project together in 2003, Last life in the universeThailand’s official entry to the Oscars that year, and also won Japanese star, Tadanobu Asano, the Best Actor award in Venice.
The film is produced by Soros Sukhum of 185 Films (who recently produced Netflix’s Thai thriller Hungry) and Conor Zorn of Little River Entertainment, with Joker Films’ Manuel Chiche and Deal Production’s Alexandra Hoesdorff co-producing. Goodfellas (formerly Wild Bunch) handles international sales, except for North America, which represents CAA.
The film recently received funding from Film Fund Luxembourg and is scheduled to shoot in Thailand in the fourth quarter of this year, with a festival launch and international release scheduled for 2024. See the first poster for the project below.
