It doesn't really take that much thought to come to the realization that a remake of Gareth Evans' Indonesian action film The Raid is a pretty bad idea. The real attraction of the original isn't the story, but rather the absolutely stunning stunt work and fight choreography performed by the cast. Knowing that no mainstream Hollywood actor could pull off the moves seen in Evans' film makes one wonder why a studio would think that a remake would work. Finally, it seems like the folks at Screen Gems are starting to understand this, as their plans for an American version of The Raid have been put on hold.
While production on the remake was scheduled to start this September, Variety is reporting that the project has been given the red light and that all pre-production work has stopped. While this certainly isn't good news for the movie, the studio is apparently confident that the film can get made and is hoping to have production part sometime in the first three months of 2015. This presumably means that the earliest we will actually get to see a finished product would be sometime in 2016.
Patrick Hughes, who first earned notice for his work on the Australian western Red Hill and will soon be back in theaters with The Expendables 3, is sitting in the director's chair for The Raid remake, but the production has not yet found its lead actor. We've previously heard rumors that Chris and Liam Hemsworth were being considered for the central roles, but Variety says that the frontrunners are now Luke Evans, Ethan Hawke, Anthony Mackie, and Frank Grillo (I guess someone saw and really liked what they saw in Captain America: The Winter Soldier). At this point no decisions have been made and nobody has actually been given an official offer While the trade report doesn't mention an exact reason for the project's delay, one possibility offered is that the movie is trying to lure in a bigger star.
Even if they do manage to land the biggest A-lister in the world for The Raid remake, however, how could they possibly compete with the work done by Iko Uwais in the original?
Are you actually interested in seeing The Raid remake, or do you hope that this delay is eventually followed by a cancellation? Answer our poll and tell us what you think in the comments section below.
