The Raid: Redemption was a breath of fresh air when it was released unceremoniously in 2011. After all, there isn’t usually much fanfare when a small, low-budget Indonesian martial arts film comes Stateside. However, once word spread about how amazing the film was, it quickly gained steam, allowing writer/producer/director Gareth Evans to begin filming The Raid 2: Berandal. Of course, when a small foreign film finds success of any kind, especially when that’s legitimately great, it was only a matter of time before a Hollywood studio would snag the rights for an American remake. Such is what happened with The Raid: Redemption awhile back.
Back in February, The Expendables 3 director Patrick Hughes was tapped to helm said American remake of The Raid: Redemption, a move I’m not too thrilled about; then again, I’m not too thrilled about American remakes of foreign films to begin with (re: Oldboy). In an exclusive interview with Coming Soon, Hughes shared some plot details for the remake that isn’t too far off from the original, as well as the tone of the film:
We have a really, really interesting take on that film,” Hughes told us. “One thing, obviously the original just blew my mind and I was fortunate enough to catch up with Gareth Evans in LA at the premiere of ‘The Raid 2.’ The thing that blew my mind with that film was the aesthetics and the fight sequences but also the simplicity of the premise, and there’s so much you can do with that. So our take on it is really interesting and I feel like if anything what I want to do is elevate the emotional aspect of it, and I think those are my favorite action films of all time when you can balance the action and the emotion, and what he did with his first ‘Raid’ was phenomenal..
Certainly, we’re not there to recreate that film beat for beat, with the set up we’re following a DEA task team, which was implemented by the Bush administration after September 11th when they realized that terrorism and the drug trade were so closely aligned. So they set up a DEA task team that’s six units and they work across borders and sort of act like Navy SEALS. You never read about it, you never hear about it, but they go on these missions. So that’s a really interesting take and a really nice premise and also what’s interesting on this take on it is the clash of cultures and the clash of martial arts, the fighting styles, which is something that’s going to be a lot of fun when we’ve really started pre-vizzing stuff.
Hughes is saying all of the right things, but it’s too early to cast judgment. For now, catch The Raid 2: Berandal in theaters (it’s playing where you live, trust me!), and we’ll see how The Expendables 3 fares when that hits theaters on August 15th.
[via Coming Soon]