Back in March 2006 the Weinstein Company purchased the worldwide distribution rights to Ong Bak 2, the sequel to the original Thai action film starring the amazing Tony Jaa, and then did nothing with it.

It actually appears that they were trying to reverse the deal and hand the rights back to the Thai distribution company Sahamongkolfilm. The good news is that a deal has finally been reached and the Weinstein Company retains the North American rights but gives back the rights in the other territories so that Sahamongkolfilm can take the film to sell at Cannes.

The second film isn't a typical sequel though, and the story from Variety suggests this is where some of the issues with the deal lie. Ong Bak was an action film, and strangely Ong Bak 2 is a period film which is ore in place as a prequel. In the film we see Tony Jaa's character on a journey to learn the skills and inner meaning of his martial arts.

I liked Ong Bak (Filmstalker review) as an great action film, although I did think there were a number of problems with the film, it featured some amazingly impressive stunts by Jaa.

What will be interesting is to see how he fares in this film, and how the sales do now that it has been sitting for so long on the Weinstein's bench. Do you think that perhaps they didn't realise how much of a non-action film this would be?