Tom Waller

Tom Waller full name Thomas de Warrenne Waller was born in Bangkok to a Thai Buddhist mother and Irish Catholic father He spent his formative years at a Benedictine monastery school in Yorkshire England before pursuing a career in film and television After attending the Northern Film School in Leeds England in 1995 he embarked on producing and directing his first feature film project Monk Dawson 1998 aka Passion for the Priest US video title based on the awardwinning novel by Piers Paul Read The film was theatrically released in 1998 to critical acclaim After 5 years in London Waller returned to his native Thailand in 2002 as a producer of independent feature films with Butterfly Man 2002 Ghost of Mae Nak 2005 The Elephant King 2006 amongst the acclaimed titles produced through his production company De Warrenne Pictures In 2008 he produced Thomas Clays Soi Cowboy 2008 which was selected for the Cannes Film Festival in Un Certain Regard After producing assignments in Thailand on foreign films BitterSweet 2009 Creation 2009 and the The Prince Me The Elephant Adventure 2010 Waller decided to return to his passion for directing with Sopmaingeap 2011 his Thai language cinematic directorial debut The film was nominated for 5 Thailand National Film Association awards including Best Picture and Best Director In addition to directing again he served as a producer on the English language debut of celebrated Thai director Prachya Pinkaew OngBak The Thai Warrior 2003 with the Hollywood action thriller Elephant White 2011 starring two time Academy Award nominee Djimon Hounsou and Golden Globe winner Kevin Bacon In 2014 he produced and directed The Last Executioner 2014 a biopic on Thailands last prison executioner which won the prestigious Tukkata Tong or Golden Doll awards for Best Picture given by the Thai Entertainment Reporters Association The film also earned him Best Director at the Dhaka International Film Festival In 2016 he served as line producer for the action sequel Mechanic Resurrection 2016 starring Jason Statham Jessica Alba Tommy Lee Jones and Michelle Yeoh Since 2004 Waller has been owner and managing director of De Warrenne Pictures Co Ltd now one of Thailands leading full service production companies serving foreign productions based out of Bangkok and Chiang Mai The company recently handled Wanda Medias psychological thriller Battle of Memories 2017 directed by Leste Chen which was entirely filmed in Thailand In 2019 Waller wrote and directed The Cave 2019 the first narrative feature film about the dramatic Thai Cave Rescue that captivated the world in the summer of 2018 The film premiered at the Busan International Film Festival and achieved over half a million admissions upon release in Thailand A Directors Cut of the film was released in the US by Lionsgate in 2022 under the title of Cave Rescue 2022 In 2023 he teamed up with Irish writeractor Eoin OBrien to make Kiss of the Con Queen based on a true story of the Hollywood Con Queen scam which was filmed in five countries and starring Ravi Patel Wonder Woman 1984 2020 in the titular role