On Friday, he donned a red Superman cape and showed off his powers by floating on a transparent wire over the terrace between Siam Paragon and the Siam Centre. It was quite a spectacle. Somchai is hardly a tall, athletic stuntman, but the executive managed to pull off the feat with a little style.

Some guys may have been shy about putting on the red elastic underwear on top of their trousers in the crowded shopping hub but Somchai confided later that the stunt had special meaning for him.

"I wanted to dress like Superman because I like the title of the latest movie, 'Superman Returns' - it reflects this stage of my life," he said.

The event added some excitement to a press conference to launch of Asia's first movable light emitting diode, or LED, screens and induced some cheers from onlookers. The organisers called the event "Super Tee returns", as "Tee" is Somchai's nickname.

Somchai said this year had been a success in contrast with the flops that he endured last year. Two of the movies that he produced bombed and some concerts that his company promoted were given the critical thumbs down.

But this year Somchai returned with a vengeance. He decided to cut the non-core interests like concert promotions and concentrate on Matching's main business of providing a film and TV commercial production house.

Matching has another movie in the pipeline this year and Somchai is confident it will bring in profits.

"Recycle", a ghost movie, is estimated to cost US$3 million (Bt114 million), US$1 million of which will be provided by Matching while its Hong Kong partners will find the rest.

"We have sold the movie rights to distributors for US$2 million and the project is doing well," Somchai added.

Friday's event was not the first time that Somchai flew in public. To celebrate a year's stock market listing for Matching Studio in November 2003, Somchai landed from a wire in front of the stock exchange's headquarters in a black suit, in an apparent attempt to look like Keanu Reeves in "The Matrix" trilogy.

Next time, he may consider dressing up like a pirate to mark the opening of the latest "Pirates of the Caribbean" film.

Kwanchai@nationgroup.com