In 2003 I was scouting Thailand for a HBO movie about Alexander the Great called ‘Fire from Heaven’. I was struggling to find a dramatic high river vista, it was pre internet, so my only source of research was to sift through every picture book that I could get my hands on.

Whilst in one on the many Bangkok book shops that I visited, I caught sight of a tiny photo in the corner of the back page of a book promoting the province Ubon Ratchathani – a view from Pha Taem National Park. I said to Piya Pestonji, Santa Films local producer, have you scouted Ubon Ratchathani before’, he said no, so I said let’s go tomorrow and look. We took the first flight to Ubon Ratchathani in the morning, we then drove out to the Pha Taem National Park and I saw the most incredible view of the Mekong River, which I photographed.

When I returned to London, the Fire from Heaven film sadly went down, it was never to be made. A few months later Producer Iain Smith called me and asked if I could go to Thailand and scout for the Oliver Stone movie ‘Alexander’, unfortunately I had already started a new film so I was not available. Piya messaged me a few days later to say that he had shown Oliver Stone my photo of Pha Taem, and Oliver said – this is where we are shooting, and they did ..

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