The announcement of an American remake of Gareth Evans THE RAID was met with equal parts joy and contention. The big studios seem to have a thing against leaving foreign films foreign and after the underwhelming OLDBOY remake, fans have been nervous. We brought you the news a while back that Evans himself was happy about the project and today we can bring you another update.
We sat down to with actor Frank Grillo, one of the first cast members confirmed for the film and poked him for information about what the audience can expect. Luckily for THN Frank was more than up for sharing details about the production and stated that the new film would ‘have it’s own identity’. He also confirmed that although it is an American remake, it would still take place in Indonesia. See everything he had to say to us below:
You have recently been announced for THE RAID remake. The first film was full of fight sequences, have you been practicing your moves?
You know they keep pushing the date of the film for that exact reason. They’re trying to find the right actors for the piece, find the right actors who can do the physical work. Because they won’t make the movie unless it is as good as, or better than, the original, because the original RAID was genius. So we’re in the process now of trying to put the cast together and find the right people to do both.
So were you a fan of the first film?
I loved it. I just thought it was really original and it’s a fanboy’s favourite so its a real delicate situation when you make a film that was recently made and is so good. You have to do it justice or else there’s no reason to make it.
I’m guessing then that it won’t be a straight remake and fans can expect to see some surprises?
It’s close in story, obviously it’s an American version, but it will take place in Indonesia. But it’s going to have it’s own twists, its own identity. We’re not going to make a straight copy of the first RAID, we won’t do that.
Most American action movies relay heavily on guns, THE RAID was more about hand-to-hand combat, will the new version stay true to this?
It’s so much hand-to-hand combat and martial arts that they want to have a window (in the shoot schedule) just to prepare the actors to learn how to fight. That’s a big commitment so that’s why it’s taking a little while to gather motion.
Come back next week when you can read the interview in its entirety.
