With Tony Jaa committing himself to becoming a Buddhist monk for the foreseeable future, it has fallen to others to carry on the future of Thai action cinema. While there doesn’t seem to be any one star standing up to take his place, aside from maybe JeeJa Yanin (Chocolate), legendary director and action choreographer Panna Rittikrai is attracting a lot of attention with an ambitious new film called BKO: Bangkok Knockout. Magnet Releasing just acquired the U.S. rights to the film and plan to bring it to North America sometime next year.

The movie combines a variety of martial arts styles, from Muay Thai to Capoeira, Kung Fu and Tai Chi, with a simple plot involving a group of “fight club pals” seeking to rescue a kidnapped friend. Rittikrai is credited as the co-director of Ong Bak 2 and 3, but he also directed the 2004 film Born to Fight, and co-ordinated stunts for Ong-Bak, The Protector and Chocolate. If you’re not yet sold, just check out the trailer after the jump. It’s not in English, but I think the action looks pretty insane, and personally I’m much more interested in this than Ong Bak 3. Thoughts?