The show’s host posted on her Facebook page on Saturday that the team will be appearing on her programme on Monday.

DeGeneres said in her post: “There was no story more captivating this summer than the Thai soccer team trapped in a cave.”

She also posted a picture of herself with all the 13 Mu Pa team members, wearing what appeared to be Ellen-brand football jerseys at the show’s California studio.

Also seated on the sofa with them was Swedish football star Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the former Manchester United player and now LA Galaxy forward.

In Thailand, the show will be broadcast on TrueVisions 339 [Lifetime channel] from 8pm onwards.

This is the Thai boys’ most high-profile international television appearance since their gripping three-day rescue operation in early July from the Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai, after being trapped inside for two weeks.

They were evacuated through an international rescue effort, though a former Navy SEAL died in the mission.

Officials had earlier asked that the boys’ right to privacy be respected after their gruelling ordeal. The Thai government even set up a committee to monitor projects and control media access to them.

But the team seems to be slowly warming up to the media glare.

An interactive exhibition by Thailand’s Culture Ministry on the rescue mission opened in Bangkok in August.

In the last few months, several documentary film-makers, Hollywood producers and journalists have jostled to make films and get book deals.

Just last Sunday, the boys played a friendly match with the youth team of the Argentinian giants, River Plate, after attending the opening ceremony of the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires the day before.

James Emswiller, who won an Emmy award in 2015, appeared to have fallen from a balcony in Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania, during a breaking in shooting, police said.

Police said witnesses had reported that Emswiller, 61, “was alone on the balcony taking a cigarette break when he may have suffered a medical emergency resulting in his fall from the balcony.”

“Initial information does not indicate any foul play,” the police said.

Emergency services rushed Emswiller, who had previously worked on the superhero film “The Avengers,” as well as the teen tear-jerker “The Fault in Our Stars,” to hospital but he died shortly afterwards, local media said.

Police said shooting of the movie, provisionally titled “You Are my Friend,” was halted while they investigated the fatal fall.

The movie is based on the creator of the much-loved children’s show “Mr Rogers’ Neighborhood,” which launched in 1968 and ran until 2001.

The film, a Spider-Man spinoff marking the official launch of Sony’s Marvel Universe, stars Tom Hardy as a journalist who becomes the host for an alien symbiote that gives him superpowers.

The character is a villain in the “Spider-Man” comic book world.

Industry tracker Exhibitor Relations said the film took in $80.3 million.

That was enough to break October’s opening weekend record by more than $20 million, said another industry tracker, Box Office Mojo.

Another new release took second place. Musical romance “A Star Is Born” earned $42.9 million over the three-day weekend, Exhibitor Relations said.

The third remake of the 1937 film of the same name, it marks Bradley Cooper’s directing debut. He also stars as a musician who discovers and falls in love with a young singer played by pop superstar Lady Gaga.

Third place went to Warner Bros’s “Smallfoot,” with earnings of $14.4 million in its second weekend. The comic family animation tells the story of a group of Yeti who come across a human, with voicing by Channing Tatum, LeBron James and Danny DeVito.

Coming in fourth was last weekend’s champion, Universal’s “Night School,” whose earnings dropped $15 million to $12.5 million this weekend.

The raucous comedy stars Kevin Hart as one student in a class of misfits working toward high school diplomas under the firm tutelage of Tiffany Haddish.

Fifth place went to Universal’s family-friendly offering “The House With a Clock in Its Walls,” which slipped from third place last weekend with takings of $7.3 million.

Rounding out this weekend’s top 10 were:

“A Simple Favor” ($3.4 million)

“The Nun” ($2.7 million)

“Crazy Rich Asians” ($2.2 million)

“Hell Fest” ($2.1 million)

“The Predator” ($947,000)

FIFTEEN YEARS have passed since his directorial debut “Shutter” for which he joined with Banjong Pisunthanakun and now Parkpoom Wongpoom is back with his first solo feature. The new film, “Homestay”, which opens on October 25, is a mixed genre movie about a wandering spirit who finds a new home in a teenager’s body and discovers the meaning of life.

The story begins when the spirit meets a mysterious man who calls himself the Guardian (Nopachai Jayanama). The two are defying gravity at the time, standing on the outer wall of a hospital building. The Guardian tells him that he has been granted a prize – a new home in the teenage body of Min (Teeradon “James” Supapunpinyo) whose dead body is in the hospital’s morgue.

Living in a new body is called a homestay. It’s temporary and doesn’t come for free. Within 100 days, he has to find out “who is responsible for Min’s death”. If he fails, he will die and leave this homestay for eternity. As Min, he has a new life living with his family: father (played by veteran DJ Viroj Khwantham), who is busy with his professional life and ignores his family, mother (Suquan Bulakool) and older brother (Nutthasit Kotimanus- wanich) who is smarter than Min and makes him feel inferior. His new life takes a turn for the better when he meets Pie (BNK48’s leader Cherprang Areekul) and that makes him want to stay in this body forever.

The movie is inspired by the Japanese novel “Colorful” by Eto Mori, which was written in 1999 and translated into Thai in 2003 as “Mua Sawan Hai Rangwan Phom”. The story, which brings a heart-warming take to the teenage problems of family, friends and suicide, attracted director Yongyooth Thongkongtoon who snapped up the copyright but never completed the project. Yongyooth handed the treatment to Parkpoom after becoming involved in the cinematic show “Kaan” two years ago during the transition of GTH to GDH.

After reading the novel and the script that had been developed for a year, Parkpoom adopted the project as his solo debut. He spent another 19 months rewriting the script to give it a more cinematic feel while taking care to stick to the original concept.

“We bought the copyright because we liked the story idea and wanted to keep the essence of the novel. To me, it is a very positive story, not a dark drama even though it deals with serious teenage issues,” says the director, who has worked on several anthologies over the years.

Fans of the novel probably focus on the issue of teen suicide but Parkpoom is more interested in the development of Min’s character.

“I think the suicide issue is the basic plot but I didn’t pay attention to it when writing the script. I like the changes in Min. He is vulnerable and interesting to follow and the character inspires me personally, especially the temporary or homestay aspect, which can apply to everything in life. By not looking at anything as permanent, we are freed from worry and life is happier,” says the director.

The concept of “homestay” relates to the Buddhist non-attachment principle, which has it that everything will come and depart eventually, including life itself. When the spirit is first placed in Min’s body, he lives freely and joyfully, looking at Min’s life as an outsider. But once Min’s behaviour changes, he feels that Min is his own self, not just his “homestay” and that makes him want to bring back the best to Min’s life.

In line with the original title “Colourful”, Mori’s novel also offers an idea of how we see people. People have different colours and tones, have good and bad sides depending on how we see them and that will change our life also.

Adapting the original story was harder than Parkpoom thought. “It wouldn’t work if we transposed the book directly to the movie. It’s my job to add the cinematic elements both visual and aural to make the story come alive on the big screen,” says the director.

“Japanese and Thai societies are different. We have different beliefs and certainly there are things that don’t make sense when put in the Thai context. This led me to make many changes to the story while keeping the original concept,” he says.

Since the success of “Shutter” and “Alone”, his co-director Banjong has come up with a series of solo films, ranging from “Guan Muen Ho” (“Hello Stranger”) to the all-time top grossing film “Pee Mak Phra Khanong” and the latest “One Day”. Parkpoom, on the other hand, has been involved in anthology projects including the horror “4 Phraeng” (“4Bia”) and “5 Phraeng” (“Phobia2”) and is also involved in “Kaan”.

He also contributed to the 2015 short film project “Kita Raja Nipon”, which transformed His Majesty the large King’s famous songs into stories, chronicling the life and struggles of conservationist Sueb Nakasatien in “Fontok Thee Huai Kha Khaeng” (“Raining in Huai Kha Khaeng”).

Parkpoom says he has developed a few projects over the years, among them a biopic of Sor Sethabutr, who came up with the first English-Thai dictionary, but these were cancelled for different reasons and he’s been kept busy writing scripts for other movies.

He says he felt vulnerable when people asked him about his first solo film and simply didn’t want to rush into anything.

“Waiting brought me the reward of being free to accept this project. With more maturity and experience, “Homestay” has come out like I wanted it,” says the 40-year-old director.

He is also pleased with his cast. James earned critical acclaim for his role in the TV drama series “SOS Skate Suem Saa” in which he plays as a boy with depression, Nopachai worked with him on “Raining in Huai Kha Khaeng” and pop idol Cherprang has an aptitude for the big screen.

“They are all talented and I didn’t want to rely solely on GDH regulars. Nutthasit has never worked with GDH and I was lucky enough to cast Cherprang before the BNK48 phenomenon hit. She has an interesting character that was perfect for the role of Pie.”

In fact the only aspect of the film he has not enjoyed is the work related to the computer graphics.

“I don’t like it because I can’t see it visually while shooting. We have only an actor acting against a green screen and we have to rely on our own imagination. I tried to avoid it as much as possible,” he says.

“I knew the visual work wouldn’t come out as I imagined unless I could communicate my thoughts precisely to the CG team. I watched every CG shot 20 times or so until I knew why and where I didn’t like it so I could give feedback to the team. It’s no good just to say ‘I don’t like it’. But after watching it so many times, I was able to say the perspective or the blurring density wasn’t right,” he says.

“I love the story and I really hope the audience will love it too and experience the same emotions as I felt while reading the novel.”

Organisers of Asia’s largest film festival have issued a rallying cry to its supporters as the event emerges from years of starring in its own political drama.

The Busan International Film Festival hopes to draw a line under its role in a bitter row over the sinking of the Sewol ferry – one of South Korea’s deadliest ever disasters – which divided and traumatised the nation.

“This edition of the festival is a reunion,” said Lee Yong-kwan, chairman of the Biff organising committee.

“This year is about our recovery and a return of our status. It’s about expansion and reformation.”

The festival opens today with the world premiere of South Korean director Jero Yun’s “Beautiful Days”, which focuses on a North Korean family reunited after the mother escapes south looking for a better life.

Lee Yong-Kwan, chairman of the Busan International Film Festival, speaks at the press conference for the event.

Its theme of reconciliation seems a fitting one considering the troubles Biff has endured since the festival screened a controversial documentary about the Sewol ferry disaster in 2014.

“The Truth Shall Not Sink with Sewol” was critical of the then-government’s handling of the tragedy in April 2014 that left more than 300 people dead, most of them school children.

Investigations into and charges against festival organisers followed, along with significant funding cuts, as the dispute between Biff and the government played out in public.

Lee and former deputy festival director Jay Jeon were initially removed from their posts but have been reinstated for this year’s edition, while the new government of President Moon Jaein has thrown its support behind the festival.

“We hope this year to become a place that once again brings filmmakers together and that the festival can be back on track,” said Biff programmer Nam Dongchul.

The 23rd edition of the Biff runs through October 13 and features 323 films from 79 countries, including 115 having their world premieres.

The Korean film industry is expected to be out in force on opening night with an array of local celebrities gracing the red carpet, including star of the opening film Lee Na-young, as well as Park Haeil and Moon Sori, who have brought the Zhang Lu-directed romance “Ode to the Goose” to the festival.

Joining them will be the likes of Hollywood producer Jason Blum (of Oscar-nominated “Whiplash” and “Get Out” fame), acclaimed Chinese arthouse darling Zhao Tao (“Ash is the Purest White”) and Indian hitmaker Rajkumar Hirani (“3 Idiots”).

Oscar-winning Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto will also be in town to accept Biff’s Asian Filmmaker of the Year Award as well as to perform on opening night.

Highlights of the festival’s main programmes include the world premiere of multi-award-winning Hong Kong auteur Stanley Kwan’s latest, the theatre-themed “First Night Nerves”.

Local films as always feature prominently, with 16 world premieres in the Korean Cinema Today section including the debut as a lead actress from sometime K-Pop star Choi Soo-young (Girls Generation) in “Memories of a Dead End”.

The festival’s main competition – the New Currents award for first or second-time Asian filmmakers – will this year be contested by 10 films from seven countries.

It features a rare Bhutanese production, the drama “The Red Phallus” from Tashi Gyeltshen.

Hong Kong filmmaker Yuen Woo-ping – famed for his work on the Oscar-winning “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and on Hollywood’s “Matrix” franchise – has returned to the director’s chair for the action movie “Master Z: The Ip Man Legacy”.

The film will bring the festival to a close on October 13 with its world premiere.

“The unique part of Biff is that it represents a wide range of cultures and filmmakers,” said Yuen.

Thailand has three movies in the Window on Asian Cinema segment, namely Aditya Assarat and Wisit Sasanatieng’s “Ten Years Thailand”, Phuttiphong Aroonpheng’s “Manta Ray” and the Thai-German production “Nakorn Sawan” by Puangsoi Aksornsawang.

First-time Malaysian director Zahir Omar is also among the new talents on show.

Omar is bringing his stylised thriller “Fly By Night” to Biff for its world premiere and said being accepted by the region’s preeminent festival felt “surreal”.

The Busan festival “allows us the space and support to develop our art,” said Omar.

“Many international festivals overlook [Asian filmmakers’] efforts, but [Biff] has become a festival that we all aspire to get into at some point in our careers.

“To say it is a big event would be an understatement.”

Talking with director Boonsong Nakphu about his latest film “Nen Kradote Kampaeng” (“The Wall”), it quickly becomes clear that it is a chronicle of his life as a novice monk.

“But it is not a personal film,” he quickly adds. “The movie has a message I want to share with those who see it and that is about a man who chases his dream for years and hurts his loved ones along the way. It’s painful when looking back,” he says.

“The Wall” is his seventh film and is centred on a stubborn filmmaker (Boonsong) who is scouting for locations for his latest film. He goes back to the places where he lived as a child and a temple where he spent his teenage years as a novice monk. In so doing, he sees the reality of the present, the reality of the past, the dreams and expectations and a mysterious darkness from which he tries to hide.

Director Boonsong Nakphu works on the set of “Nen Kradote Kampaeng” (“The Wall”), shooting in the same temple where he spent 10 years as a novice.

Boonsong wrote the story while a student of Dramatic Arts at Chulalongkorn University. He received Bt1 million in funding from the Ministry of Culture but says it was far too little to make a film about novice life.

The script has been changed due to the budget constraints. It originally was what he calls a “period film” about life as a novice monk in the 1980s but later morphed into the story of a stubborn director who finds himself back in his hometown and visiting the temple where he once lived. Memories are told through flashbacks – sneaking out to watch a movie, developing a crush on a local girl – interspersed with the dream that enveloped him during his time at the temple. Even though life as a novice meant he studied dharma and had to adhere to temple rules, he incessantly thought of what lay outside.

“Even though I am not good looking, I would dream of being an actor. Soraphong Chatree was my idol at that time. I tried so hard to get into university so I could learn how to become an actor,” says the director.

Like many Thai kids born into poor families, Boonsong was sent into the monkhood so he would have a chance of getting into a higher education facility. And so he left his home in Sukhothai for Phetchabun to study at Wat Praison Sakdaram in Lomsak, where he wore the saffron robe for 10 years.

While he achieved one part of his parents’ dream – a place at a top university – his decision to study acting came as a shock to his family.

“By leaving home and pursuing my dream in Bangkok, I left my mother behind and hurt so many people along the way. And on top of all that, I am still not successful either as a director or actor,” he says.

He has since reunited with his mother, who is now old and unable to walk. She is a regular in his films, appearing in “Wangphikul” (“Village of Hope”) as well as “The Wall” in which his young son plays Boonsong as a child.

After the film had its premiere at the Bangkok Asean Film Festival in July, Boonsong trimmed 20 minutes and reshaped the story, making it leaner and more centred on the message he wants to convey.

“The novice in this movie is just like a real novice. These boys are ordinary people in the saffron robes. There is no religious criticism; it’s just a story about a person who has a dream,” he says.

He adds that the wall in the film can be anything from the physical temple wall that prevents the novice from chasing his dream or an insurmountable barrier that prevents him from seeing other sides of the real world.

The film, he says, is probably the last he will make based on his own life. “I am too old to look back with nostalgia. In the future I will focus on human stories,” says the 50-year-old director.

Boonsong has struggled throughout his filmmaking career and self-produced all of his films, none of which has enjoyed even modest box office success.

“The ideal ‘successful filmmaker’ for me means that they make money at the box office and are able to make the stories they want to. I’ve only achieved the second of these goals,” he says.

“Even though money is not a priority, I wish my movies would do well too as this implies that I have an audience. My hope is for my film to be powerful enough to be seen by a wider group rather than a limited community. I’d love to have an audience of more than 10,000 that increases every year.

“I sometimes wonder if I am chasing an empty dream and if I would do better giving up and going home to farm the land I’ve prepared. This uncertainty is reflected in the movie too,” he says.

“The Wall” ended up with a funding shortage that forced him to dip into the family savings set aside for his son.

He supplements his meagre income for his films by working as an actor, lecturing about film at various universities, scriptwriting, and as an acting coach and producer.

With “The Wall” now done and dusted, he will continue with other projects including an anthology of 11 short films with his students at Naresuan University, the story of a teenage girl from the Northeast who pursues a better life by working at a karaoke bar in Bangkok and a tale focusing on Buddhist philosophy.

Boonsong made his directorial debut with “Khon Jone Phoo Yingyai” (“Poor People the Great”) and followed up with “Wangphikul” (“Village of Hope”), based on short stories by noted Thai authors.

His film “Sathanee See Phaak” (“Four Stations”) won a jury prize at last year’s Deauville Asian Film Festival and was also screened at the World Film Festival of Bangkok. His recent films include “Thudongkahwat” (“Wandering”) about a man suffering in life who ordains at a forest temple then goes on a Buddhist pilgrimage and the latest “Mahalai Wua Chon” (“Song from Phatthalung”).

Another brick

– “The Wall” is now on limited release and showing at House RCA, Bangkok Screening Room and Doc Club Theatre at Warehouse 30.

– A film talk and special screenings of Boonsong’s previous films are being held both at Bangkok Screening Room and Doc Club Theatre.

– Find out more at Facebook.com/PlapenFilmStudio.

French director Claude Lelouch has started shooting a sequel to his classic romance “A Man and a Woman” with the same actors, 52 years after the original was a box office smash.

The movie has gone down in film legend for its theme tune of the same name, with its “chabadabada, chabadabada” refrain.

Lelouch’s production company confirmed last week that filming had begun in Deauville on the northern French coast, the same resort where the 1966 double-Oscar-winning love story unfolds.

Its co-stars Anouk Aimee, now 86, and 87-year-old Jean-Louis Trintignant have both taken up their original roles as a widow and a widower who refind love.

Lelouch said he wanted to go back to the heartbreaking story one more time after making a first sequel, “A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later”, in 1986.

“In this film I want to tell how life is stronger than death.

In this file photo taken on May 12, 1986, French actor Jean-Louis Trintignant, right, actress Anouk Aimee, second right, director Claude Lelouch and his wife Marie-Sophie, pose during a press conference at the 39th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, southern France.

“‘A Man and a Woman’ is a homage to life. It is a love story that tells us that there is always a second chance,” he said.

“The same actors have retaken up their roles. The script is secret, it will be a surprise,” his production company Films 13 said in a statement.

As well as its double Oscar victory, the original film won two Golden Globes and the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival.

Trintignant came back from a 14-year retirement in 2012 to make the Oscar and Palme d’Orwinning “Amour” after Austrian director Michael Haneke wrote the film for him.

He revealed in July that he had prostrate cancer, declaring that he never wanted to make another film.

“I am afraid I would not be able to do it physically,” he told the Nice Matin daily.

But the veteran – a thrill-seeking racing car driver in his youth – clearly found the strength from somewhere for one last performance.

Both actors are living legends in France, with Aimee adored for her iconic roles in Jacques Demy’s “Lola”, Fellini’s masterpiece “La Dolce Vita” and the American Robert Altman’s “Pret a Porter”.

The original film also made the theme song by Pierre Barouh and Francis Lai a global hit.

“We didn’t know that it would be such an optimistic film at the start,” Lelouch recalled.

“When I wrote it first I thought to myself, ‘Bloody hell, it’s sad.’ The optimism came from the music; we showed that life was stronger than death and they were a match,” he added.

As “Game of Thrones” finishes filming after a decade in Northern Ireland, HBO is celebrating the show’s legacy by converting several filming locations into tourist attractions.

Fans of the Emmy-winning series will have the unique opportunity to immerse themselves in the world of Westeros.

In true Game of Thrones fashion, the Legacy attractions will be on a scale and scope bigger than anything ever seen. Each site will feature not only the sets but also displays of costumes, props, weapons, set decorations, art files, models and other production materials.

The visitor experience will be enhanced by state-of-the-art digital content and interactive materials that will showcase some of the digital wizardry the series is known for.

“We look forward to opening the gates and sharing the excitement of stepping inside these amazing sets with fans from around the world,” says Jeff Peters, vice president for licensing. “The opportunity to celebrate Northern Ireland’s pivotal role in the life and legacy of the show and share its culture, beauty and warmth is also a huge inspiration behind these Legacy projects.”

John McGrillen of Tourism NI says the Legacy project will be “a game-changer for Northern Ireland on a global tourism level. We look forward to attracting many more visitors to our beautiful country as a result.”

Plans are underway to include the standing sets for locations such as Winterfell, Castle Black and Kings Landing alongside a formal tour of Linen Mill Studios that will showcase a wide array of subject matter from the series, spanning all seasons and settings.

A description of the full scope of the Legacy project will be revealed after the exploratory process is completed.

 In an era where many of us are choosing to consume our entertainment on our personal devices, it comes as little surprise to see some of the biggest names in filmmaking turning their talents to making content for television or streaming services. Despite the pressure from cinemas and the decision taken by a few of the major film festivals to ban films without theatrical distribution from playing in competition, others are welcoming them with open arms and even rewarding them. A case in point is Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma”, which in September became the first Netflix movie to win the prestigious Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival.

The recently ended Toronto International Film Festival, one of the biggest film events in the world, introduced its Primetime programme in 2015. This a special showcase for cinematic television, defined as television series made with cinematic quality that can also be presented on big screen. For the first time this year, television from Southeast Asia was recognised in the Primetime segment with “A Mother’s Love” and “Pob”, two episodes of “Folklore”, a new horror anthology by HBO Asia produced by award-winning Singaporean film director Eric Khoo and directed by Indonesian filmmaker Joko Anwar and Thai auteur Pen-ek Ratanaruang respectively. Anwar, who enjoyed recent success across the region with his latest film “Satan’s Slave”, was unable to make it to Toronto to attend the premiere of his work, but Pen-ek and Khoo were both on hand to meet the audience after the screenings.

PenEk Ratanaruang’s episode for HBO Asia’s anthology horror series “Folklore”, focuses on the famous Thai ghost “Pob”. /Photo courtesy of HBO

“Eric emailed me to say he was producing a horror series for HBO Asia,” Pen-ek tells XP. “I’ve never directed horror before, except for ‘Nymph’, which is not really a horror film. He told me it was a TV film and there needed to be a ghost in it, so I asked Eric to give me a week to make a decision. The concept was to assign every filmmaker in the project to make a television film about a famous ghost in their own country. And Thailand is spoilt for choice with its krasue, krahung, pob and Mae Nak ghosts.”

After consulting with veteran producer Soros Sukhum and asking him to work on the project, Pen-ek decided to make a film about the pob ghost. Pob, which feeds on human intestines, has appeared in many horror-comedies, among them the “Baan Phee Pob” film series between 1989 and 1994. In those films the pob ghost is presented as an old woman who chasing humans for their intestines. Pen-ek’s pob, though, is different. “It’s the story of a ghost who enters a man’s house to find something to eat only to discover that the house is inhabited by a farang (foreigner). The ghost can’t speak English so is unable to communicate with the farang, and the farang thinks the ghost is a kind of beggar. Soros and I wanted to make our ghost the victim of the farang because he’s afraid of speaking English. I told Eric about our idea and he approved it,” Pen-ek expains.

In Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s latest work “Folklore: Pob”, an episode of a television series for HBO Asia, he tells the story of Pob ghost (Parama Wutthikornditsakul) who goes into a house of a farang with whom he can’t communicate./Photo courtesy of HBO

The film shows how the pob ghost loses confidence after failing to communicate with the farang and gets so frustrated that he kills him. Later the ghost meets a journalist and confesses the murder.

“I wrote a seven-page treatment and sent it to the HBO team. I received some feedback but I decided not to change anything. Although I have no experience of the horror genre, I did learn from one of my previous works that having a lot of producers on board is confusing. At first I thought it could be great to get comments to help me make a better film, but it didn’t work out that way. Those who commented are all excellent producers but their comments confused the images in my head. I was questioned in much the same way as at film school – the motivation of the characters, stuff like that. But I am not that kind of director. I am not that kind of screenwriter. Everything is visual in my mind, and I combine all the visuals into a story.”

“After I received comments, I didn’t feel comfortable. I sat down for a whole day in front of my computer and replied to each comment one by one. HBO replied that they believed in my vision, so I started writing the screenplay right away,” Pen-ek says.

“Pob” is made in black and white, which is unusual for television, and some channels, HBO among them, normally don’t allow anything but colour.

“HBO learned that the film was being shot in black and white while we were shooting and told me this wasn’t allowed. I pointed out that I had written a note in the script stating that the entire film would be in black and white except scenes 14, 27 and 36. They replied that they had misunderstood. I still filmed it in black and white and when HBO sent someone to check on the production, they asked me to stop the filming and go back to talk.

“The lighting for colour and black-and-white is different and we’d used camera effects for the scenes in which the ghost appears. We’d already shot all this and it was far too late to change. But I have to give credit to HBO for finally allowing me to do it my way. I finished the production and the editing and sent the rough cut in black and white. Now everybody likes it in black and white.”

Pen-ek’s films normally feature well-known Thai actors but here again, he has veered from convention. The main characters in “Pob” are Nuttapon Sawasdee, Parama Wutthikornditsakul and Thomas Burton Van Blarcom, all of them new to film. “All my films used stars, which is a condition for marketing, but for this film, there’s no such condition as it is a television film. I will never agree with that kind of condition again. The guy who plays the journalist is a friend of an artist friend and the person who plays ghost is an extra in Thai films.”

The director has in fact made two versions of “Folklore: Pob”, one the 53-minute version for HBO Asia, and the other a 61-minute version, which was the one screened in Toronto.

“All the scenes are intact but I trimmed some of them down. The executives at HBO prefer the 53-minute version,” Pen-ek says.

“Folklore: A Mother’s Love & Pob” were well-received at Toronto, and the series starts screening on HBO this month. Pen-ek’s episode will premiere on October 28 but the fate of the 61-minute theatrical version remains uncertain.

“It’s HBO’s film,” Pen-ek says with a shrug.