Ong-Bak is the hottest martial arts movie for years – no wires, no tricks and no CGI. London-based Egovision created the film’s Web site and an addictive online beat-’em-up to promote the film in the UK.

border=0 /><BR></div> </p> <p> Martial arts movie star Tony Jaa has been described by critics as “Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li all rolled into one”. He’s taken the film world by storm with his first movie, Ong-Bak, which features no wires, CGI, or effects, but lots of incredible action. </p> <p> Set 200 years ago on the Thai/Burmese border, the film follows Jaa’s character, Ting, as he goes in search of a sacred Buddha – the Ong-Bak of the title. </p> <p> London design company Egovision landed the project to design the Web site and game to promote the movie. “Egovision has been working with Premier Asia and sister label Hong Kong Legends for some time,” explains John Lyons, interactive director and co-founder of Egovision. </p> <p> After completing several online campaigns to promote films and DVDs for Premier Asia, Egovision was keen to get involved in the Ong-Bak project. “We became aware of Ong-Bak just over two years ago, and were immediately excited by the project. Ong-Bak is a real old school action movie with no CGI, wires, or stunt doubles and Tony Jaa, in his first movie, is something else.” </p> <p> Because of the good working relationship, Egovision was given an open brief. “The brief was fairly fluid,” says Lyons. “The client was confident enough in our ability to simply present the movie and ask us what we thought we could do for it.” </p> <p> Egovision realized there would be a lot of excitement around the real-life action in the film and the “incredible talent of Tony Jaa”. Lyons says: “All of our focus has been on showing these aspects and allowing the fans to discover information they couldn’t find anywhere else.” </p> <p> The site was designed to visually support the poster and TV campaigns, and to provide unique information about the movie. “It was instantly clear that martial arts fans in the UK were anticipating its release and hungry for more information,” says Lyons. Satisfying this audience was key. </p> <p> However, Lyons also saw that Ong-Bak steps beyond the boundaries of hard-core martial arts cinema, appealing to a mainstream audience who have enjoyed the Asian-influenced wire-work of Hollywood in recent years (such as Hero and Charlie’s Angels). </p> <p> <h2>No brainer</h2> </p> <p> <div class=inlineimage><img src= Print

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