Last week, news broke that director Joe Carnahan (The Grey) and actor Frank Grillo (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) were set to ‘re-imagine’ the Indonesian epic The Raid. According to the announcement, the new film would be set in Caracas, Venezuela and the fighting would stray from the way that it was seen in the original film. In the original, the fighting was epic, involving massively choreographed scenes that spanned incredible lengths throughout the film. It was a brutal, raw film that holds no punches. (Seriously, if you haven’t seen the film yet, do yourself a favor and check it out).
The original film’s director, Gareth Edwards (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), will produce the film with Carnahan. In a recent interview with Collider, Carnahan gives a few details about the direction of this remake:
“What Frank and I both cotton to is this idea of special operators. Special forces operation guys often times like football players. They’re never 100%. Soft tissue damage in their hands, radial fractures, knees are shot, this and that. So this idea you’re catching a guy who is compelled to go after his brother after he just got his ass kicked in a completely different operation. You’re getting a guy who’s like the walking wounded. So you’re immediately plugging in to this very mortal, very human, everybody’s been hurt, everybody’s tweaked their back; in fact, more people have an affinity and an understanding of that situation than being this completely physically fit monster that doesn’t feel pain.”
Carnahan and Grillo want the film to feel raw and unscripted, almost brutal at times. Carnahan says that he wants the violence to feel uncomfortable, like the “knife fight between Adam Goldberg and the German in Saving Private Ryan.” This would keep audiences minds from comparing the two films on similarities, and rather the unifying facto would be both film’s brutality.
Carnahan goes on to say that he wants the budget to stay below $20 Million, and he looks to start working on the film ‘as soon as possible.’ The kicker here, is that both he and Grillo are taking no money upfront for the film. Their paycheck depends solely on the success of this remake. This is an interesting idea. They would definitely put everything they have into the film, or their paychecks would suffer.
Carnahan and Grillo are very adamant that this will not be another Hollywood rip-off movie:
GRILLO: Many Americans, most Americans, have never seen The Raid before.
CARNAHAN: By the way, Smokin’ Aces is about an assault on a penthouse with a bunch of crazy people fighting their way up to the top. That was six years before The Raidwas made. So it’s not like these are things that don’t interest me. I can show you a pattern. I dig that kind of an idea.
GRILLO: And I’ll tell you something that bothers me. When people say you’re doing to do “The Hollywood Version” of The Raid–
CARNAHAN: Or whitewash it.
GRILLO: First of all, we’re not the Hollywood version of anything. We come through the back door all the time. I am not Tom Cruise. I’m not the Hollywood version. I am not knocking Tom Cruise, but he’s Tom Cruise. He gets to do whatever he wants. So my point is we don’t have to do this. We can do anything we want to do. We want to do this because there’s something we see that we want to show to American audiences, and audiences globally. Many people have not seen The Raid.
CARNAHAN: Among cinephiles, it’s a beloved film. But people in Des Moines, Iowa have not seen The Raid.
I am certain there is someone in Des Moines standing up saying, “Hey, I love The Raid!” In another report, the original film’s star Iko Uwais might appear in this film as well. The actor has already asked about the potential of a role in the film.
There is no timeline set for The Raid remake, but I hope that it happens quickly. This is a movie I would love to see.
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