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'The Expendables 3' Director Being Named To Helm THE RAID Remake!

Lee B. Golden III
Patrick Hughes

With writer and director Gareth Evans ramping up efforts to promote the forthcoming March 28, 2014 release of The Raid 2: Berandal, what is still left in the air is the issue of whether or not action star Sylvester Stallone’s August release, The Expendables 3, will actually “raid” The Raid as he so described it on Twitter last year. Regardless though, it seems all the talk of raiding everything has put The Expendables 3 helmer Patrick Hughes in a bigger light as reports indicate that the director is now being tapped to direct Screen Gems’s upcoming remake of The Raid, which is being penned by Out Of The Furnace co-scribe Brad Inglesby.

Talk of the American remake has gone on for quite a while since the success of Evans‘s film which released in 2011 and made its way overseas the following year, launching actor and martial arts action hero Iko Uwais to superstardom since their first director/star pairing in the 2009 film, Merantau. And with the American remake now on the way, fans of the franchise can only speculate which actors can capture the essence of the original characters, including brothers Rama and Andi, (intially played by Uwais and actor Donny Alamsyah), brothers on two sides of the law when a police raid unfolds in a 15-story apartment building that becomes ground zero for a deadly and bloody war with the city’s most notorious crimelord, leading to more questions about just why they are there in the first place.

Ironically, reports also indicate that actor brothers, The Expendables 2 co-star Liam Hemsworth and Thor star Chris Hemsworth are now being mentioned through the grapevine to possibly portray those roles in the remake, which still begs the question that considering the stellar performances by the original film’s Indonesian martial arts cast, including that of Fast And Furious 6 co-star and Judo expert Joe Taslim and Silat impressario Yayan Ruhian, just who can suit the role of repsective characters like Jaka and Mad Dog. In that case, there are plenty of names to go around that could suit an American remake of this very nature considering size, height and skillset as issues-names like Marko Zaror, Michael Jai White and Scott Adkins (…ahem!), either of which who could bode well for the vision of the action sequences by a certain familiar stunt coordinator out there; the list goes on, of course.
At any rate though, our friends at XYZ Films are on hand to produce this one with Gareth Evans serving as executive producer.
So, yes, sometime between now and after the August 15, 2014 release of The Expendables 3, this is happening. And if all else works out and fans support this inspired cult favorite, Hollywood may very well be able to replicate the franchise success of its own, much like the one currently being had by Evans with the release of his sequel just five weeks from now.
Stay tuned for more information.
H/T: The Wrap
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