wife, designed the costumes and served as a producer. Because of Queen Sirikit's backing, when the script called for a large number of men in the battle scenes, Royal Thai Army and Royal Thai Navy personnel were called upon to help make up the thousands of extras required. Chatrichalerm states that The Legend of Suriyothai was originally the idea of Queen Sirikit. According to Chatrichalerm, the Queen wanted the Thai people to have a better understanding of their history and felt that a motion picture would be a good way to accomplish this. Chatrichalerm and Queen Sirikit mutually agreed to use Suriyothai as their first subject. Documents sent to King John III of Portugal (1521–1557) from Domingos de Seixas, a mercenary in the Ayutthaya Kingdom from 1524 to 1549, were consulted. The film depicts some Portuguese, and their introduction of Early Modern warfare, but the only one with a speaking part was a physician called to the deathbed of the poisoned king. A follow-up film on King Naresuan, King Naresuan was released in 2007. Amporn Jirattikorn argues that other motivations for the film included a fear of foreign influence after the 1997 Asian financial crisis and competition from another historical figure, the sister to King Naresuan. According to Jirattikorn, the film attempts to provide a national hero connected to the current monarchical dynasty, in contrast to other Thai films presenting events of the same era (e.g., Bang Rajan). The movie uses many locations and sites in Thailand as its sets and with its massive cast and expensive production richly displays life in the 16th century. The battle scenes employed thousands of extras and there are hundreds of real elephants used as moving battle platforms. It took three years to shoot. It is rumored that the film cost between US$8 and 20 million, making it the most expensive Thai film ever made. However, due to the involvement of the Thai Royal Family, any figure is hard to substantiate. Additionally, the royal family’s association with this motion picture allowed filming in locations that would have been difficult or even impossible for any other director to access. Alternative versions When the film was released on August 12, 2001 in Thailand, it was simply titled Suriyothai and had a running time of 185 minutes. This is pared down quite a bit from its intended eight-hour length. A five-hour version exists in a DVD box-set