#sompote sands

[brokehorrorfan]

Crocodile will be released on Blu-ray on July 9 via Synapse Films. The 1979 monster movie hails from Thailand.

Produced by Dick Randall (Pieces, Slaughter High), the film is directed by Sompote Sands. Nat Puvanai, Ni Tien, Angela Wells, Kirk Warren, and Robert Chan star.

Crocodile has been newly restored from the original English 35mm camera negative. Special features are listed below.

Special features:

Audio commentary by film historian Lee Gambin

Interview with original director Won-se Lee,

Deleted & alternate scenes

Theatrical trailer

When doctors Tony Akom (Nat Puvani) and John Stromm (Min Oo) take their wives on a quiet beach vacation, it quickly turns into a nightmare. The nightmare? Their wives are attacked and killed by a giant crocodile that has mutated from nearby nuclear testing. Out for vengeance, they enlist the help of Tanaka (Manop Asavatep), a local fisherman, and Peter (Robert Chan), a photographer. Will they be able to stop the rampaging village-stomping beast before others are devoured?

Pre-order Crocodile.

[randomdeinonychus]

I am so excited that Synapse's release of this film is finally available!

You can order it with the limited slipcover at DiabolikDVD, which is a seller I highly recommend in general.

I had sworn off buying any other movies for the rest of June at least, but I had to order this one.

[Note: This appears to just be the US cut, but it features "Deleted & Alternate Scenes" so hopefully that gives us at least a tiny glimpse of the original cut of the film]

[laboitediabolique]

Ruins of the compound owned by Thai film producer Sompote Sands who helmed Chaiyo Productions. Sands claimed in 1996 that he had the international rights to several Tsuburaya Productions characters, including Ultraman, based upon a document signed by former president of Tsuburaya Productions, Noboru Tsuburaya, who had died in the previous year.

Around 2006 or so, Sands had developed plans to build a 1 billion baht Ultraman Town & Museum outside of Ayutthaya in Thailand which would open around 2009. The theme park would be based upon Nebula M78, the birthplace of the Ultraman, and would consist of displays of various Ultraman and the monsters they had fought and a 50 metre statue of Ultraman and Alien Baltan. However lawsuits from Tsuburaya Productions in regards to ownership of the rights of Ultraman halted construction. Sands lost the case to Tsuburaya Productions in 2018.

Since then, the compound has acted as a private archive for Chaiyo Productions. Sands passed away in August 2021. This photograph was taken some months after his passing. From what I understand the compound’s buildings and the giant Ultraman head have since been demolished. 

[charnel-grounds]

Crocodile (1981)

[himitsusentaiblog]

It is with mixed feelings today that I learned about the death of Thai director and founder of Chaiyo Productions Sompote Saengduenchai a.k.a Sompote Sands who passed away yesterday, August 26, 2021 at the age of 80. Sands was a controversial figure to put it lightly in the tokusatsu field.  He worked briefly with Eiji Tsuburaya and teamed up with Tsuburaya Productions in the 1970s to co-produce the Thai films Jumborg Ace and Giant as well as Hanuman and the 7 Ultramen.

He would later go on to produce the totally unauthorized by Toei Hanuman and the 5 Riders.

He was also responsible for the decades long attempt to claim international distribution rights to the Showa Ultra series which was only finally resolved in Tsuburaya’s favor in 2018.  He attempted to create his own Ultra Heroes for the Thai market but was beaten down in court as that was never part of the supposed agreement that ‘gave’ him distribution rights. He also produced his own films such as The Magic Lizard 

And Crocodile

[atomic-crusader]

RIP Sompote Sands

Yesterday it was reported on Twitter that Sompote Sands passed away. Many of us know him as a controversial figure who attempted (and for a while, successfully) to steal the Ultraman franchise. However he has made other films, and outside of his Ultraman projects, he also worked on the 1979/1980 film Crocodile. As far as I know, the last we had heard from Sands was when he had lost an appeal with the Thai Supreme Court Division in 2020 that cost him the rights to Hanuman vs 7 Ultraman and Jumborg Ace and Giant.

[rustybottlecap]

I have to admit, it’s pretty ingenious from Sompote Sands or whoever to make that Hanuman vinyl figure with a removable mask, as it takes “”inspiration”” from several Tsuburaya hero figures while also making it distinct from other Hanuman figures that are simply based on the Ramakien epic.

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

And here’s an unbelievably cursed image to complement the last post! Sompote Sands and three unidentified suit actors on the set of Jumborg Ace & Giant (1974).