Word has it that it’s pretty cool to be writer and director Gareth Evans right about now. Tuesday night’s premiere of his newest film, The Raid 2: Berandal, starring breakout action star Iko Uwais, is being met with an internet-full of praise and acclaim from Sundance Film Festival attendees and critics alike, basically reassuring fans everywhere that the film absolutely will not disappoint upon its release in March. That said, if you have been following Evans on Twitter for the past year or so, you were likely to catch a few blurbs every now and again between the director, and fellow martial arts action cinema superstar Scott Adkins mingling ideas between tweets, and probably on a much smaller scale than anything they might have discussed in private, if anything.
Adkins became the center of much of support from his worldwide fan base with recent hopes Universal Pictures would cast him in Fast And Furious 7, in addition to confirming him for Zack Snyder’s new Batman/Superman movie when it was discovered he auditioned for the role of Bruce Wayne, before it ultimately went to actor Ben Affleck. Suffice to say, fans love him, and further developments now await for news regarding Adkins‘ other upcoming projects, which also includes the upcoming fourth installment to the boxing/MMA hybridized jailhouse tournament movie series, Undisputed IV, which was announced late last year. But now, with the momentum high and a re-energized Sundance-driven roar of fan appreciation for martial arts action over in Utah, the star of director Isaac Florentine’s most recent martial arts cinema success story Ninja: Shadow Of A Tear is making his interests publicly known.
So there it is, clear, cut and dry. And
Evans tweeted to Film Combat Syndicate
back in December that he has a basic outline for the third film which might arrive as early as 2017, also clarifying in recent tweets that part three
would start two hours before The Raid 2: Berandal ends.
Nothing else is being publicly discussed about the third film as far as I know, as things are just now kicking off at the moment for part two. Rest assured however that whatever happens, let’s hope that outline will fit a kick ass big screen fight scene between two of the genre’s biggest shining stars to date.
The Raid 2: Berandal premieres for two more nights this month at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah before theatrically releasing in select theaters as The Raid 2 in North America, Indonesia and New Zealand on March 28, 2014, courtesy of Sony Classics.
