James McTeigue to Direct Bangkok 8

Fresh off his debut in the Wachowski Brothers’ “V for Vendetta” (and of course, the Wachowski Brothers’ not-so-secret thinkering on “The Invasion”, which McTeigue was rumored to have directed new scenes for), James McTeigue has lined up “Bangkok 8″ as his next feature. The movie is the first of three mystery books by novelist John Burdett, “Bangkok 8″ follows a Thai cop who investigates the murder of a U.S. Marine Bangkok; when the cop’s partner is also killed, he has to team up with a female FBI Agent to find the killers.

Amazon.com’s got a better description of the Burdett book, and I’m assuming, the movie’s plot, than Variety, who seems kind of confused about the whole plotline:

When a U.S. Marine is killed in Bangkok, the task of finding the murderer falls to Detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep, seemingly the only member of the Royal Thai Police Force whose idea of justice precludes his fellow officers’ customary system of bribery. This assignment’s especially important to the devout detective for during the investigation of the murder scene, the methamphetamine-stoked snakes that bit the marine also kill Sonchai’s police partner, best friend, and Buddhist soul-mate Pichai. Sonchai’s pursuit of revenge will team him with a sexually frustrated FBI agent and leave them at the mercy of yaa-baa-fueled motorcycle-taxi drivers as they hurtle through neon-lit Bangkok and into the labyrinthine and deadly machinations of the international jade and drug trades in search of the killer.

I’m guessing that if “Bangkok 8″ is a success, the other two books will be adapted into movies as well. Since they aren’t a trilogy (Thank God, who needs more of those?), the movies should be stand-alone stories.

The plan is to shoot the movie in Thailand, but with the country’s current military coup-governed state, I would think twice if I were them. And the Thais are notorious for banning anything and everything that puts their country in a bad light, and a movie about a dead U.S. Marine and corrupt Thai cops won’t go over very well over there…