It's Official! Magnolia Pictures Picks Up Tabunfire AKA Dynamite Warrior!

There have been rumblings about this for a little while now and it just became official today: Magnolia Pictures have picked up all North American rights for Thai martial arts picture Tabunfire. Retitled Dynamite Warrior for the English speaking market the film stars Dan Chupong from Born to Fight as a revenge seeking, cattle rustler fighting, black magic battling - with virgin's menstrual blood, no less - rocket firing man on a mission. Martial arts choreography comes courtesy of Panna Rittikrai who also puts in his first on screen appearance in a good number of years. We got the go ahead to show the promo trailer for this at Toronto After Dark and it's a gooooooood time.

Check the sales flyer here.

Read on for the full press release.

Los Angeles, CA November 3, 2006 – Magnolia Pictures acquires DYNAMITE WARRIOR

Magnolia Pictures announced at AFM today the acquisition of all North American rights to DYNAMITE WARRIOR (TABUNFIRE), the latest martial arts sensation from Thailand. The film will see release in its home country this December.

Produced by Prachya Pinkaew (ONG BAK: THE THAI WARRIOR) and featuring death-defying stunts from acclaimed coordinator Panna Rittikrai (ONG BAK, BORN TO FIGHT), DYNAMITE WARRIOR stars Dan Chupong of BORN TO FIGHT as Zieng, “The Rocket Thief,” a young man riddled with grief and bent on revenge after witnessing his parents’ murder by a callous and malicious killer. The only information Zieng has as to the killer’s identity is the tattoo-covered man who is part of an organized group of cattle rustlers. Zieng makes it his mission to stop all cattle rustlers and in the process return each head of cattle back to its rightful owner.

“DYNAMITE WARRIOR is an absolute blast. We're very happy to be working again with Sahamongkolfilm and Panna Rittikrai, who on the basis of this film and ONG BAK, has established himself as one of the world's masters at orchestrating incredible action stunt mayhem." said Magnolia President Eamonn Bowles. Magnolia will release the film in the United States in Summer 2007.

The company's Head of Acquisitions Tom Quinn and Head of Business Affairs Jason Janego negotiated the deal with Gilbert Lim representing Sahamongkolfilm. The two companies previously worked together on the launch of international martial arts superstar Tony Jaa and his breakout film ONG BAK: THE THAI WARRIOR.

“Magnolia Pictures did a tremendous job introducing Tony Jaa to North American audiences. We’re very excited to be working with them in a continuing effort to revolutionize the genre,” added Sahamongkolfilm Executive Vice President Gilbert Lim.

Magnolia Pictures, an independent distributor, recently released Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s JESUS CAMP, Billy Corben’s COCAINE COWBOYS, Roger Donaldson’s THE WORLD’S FASTEST INDIAN with Anthony Hopkins, Alex Gibney’s Academy Award-nominated documentary ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM, and also mounted the successful multi-platform release of Steven Soderbergh’s BUBBLE. Upcoming films include Bong Joon-ho's THE HOST, Christopher Smith's SEVERANCE and Johnnie To’s EXILED. Magnolia Pictures is part of a vertically-integrated group of media properties co-owned by Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban that also includes the Landmark Theatres chain, production companies HDNet Films and 2929 Productions, and high-definition cable networks HDNet and HDNet Movies.