Director Gareth Evans took to twitter today to set the record straight on images taken from the set that we proclaimed to be of the character, Prakoso, from the set of The Raid 2, also known as its Indonesian title, Berandal, meaning “Punk”. “Okay so a few people have started posting snaps of @YayanRuhian during downtime on set as images of him as Prakoso in #TheRaid2Berandal” he tweets. “Those photos aren’t him in character… This is Prakoso #TheRaid2Berandal” he says, sharing the photo which can be seen on the left.
Berandal, which is slated for North American release sometime in 2014 as “The Raid: Retaliation”, began production in January 2013 from PT Merantau Films and XYZ Films with the promise of a larger scale story with a slightly bigger budget to promise more brutal and bloodier action than before, with such sequences including a prison riot, a bathroom brawl, some longer fights and an epic car fight on the streets of Jakarta. Iko Uwais remains as the prominent leading man reprising his role from the 2011 film, The Raid (U.S.A. title: “The Raid: Redemption”) as Rama, a rookie member of an elite unit sent to infiltrate a 15-story apartment building owned by a notorious crimelord. The sequel, Berandal, takes place just after the events of the first film as Rama is sent undercover to prison on an intricate mission to filter out the courruption in the police force. To spice things up, Evans has also indicated Uwais would be using a particular weapon originally showcased in the intro to the 2009 film, Merantau
, to be featured by Uwais in the action in The Raid 2. “For those that saw @iko_uwais training at the start of Merantau with the kerambik knife, but were frustrated we didn’t use them more…” says Evans, “…we won’t let you down this time.”.
, to be featured by Uwais in the action in The Raid 2. “For those that saw @iko_uwais training at the start of Merantau with the kerambik knife, but were frustrated we didn’t use them more…” says Evans, “…we won’t let you down this time.”.
Yayan Ruhian, who starred opposite Uwais in Merantau and The Raid, returns to appear along with several new characters for the film, which include the “Assassin”, the “Baseball Bat” man, and actress Julie Estelle‘s peformance as “Hammer Girl“. Compared to his previous role as the viciously skilled and deadly Mad Dog, Ruhian’s “Prakoso” is described as a scruffily dressed assassin whose main specialty lies in slicing and dicing his prey with sharp machetes. Other actors Evans has been busy wrapping up scenes with as of late include Japanese actors Ryuhei Matsuda, Kenuchi Endo and Kazuki Kitamura. Tio Pakusodewo, Marsha Timothy, the “mind-bafflingly” fast Cecep Arif Rahman, Putra Arifin Scheunamann, Alex Abbad, Oka Antara, Epy Kusnandar and Roy Marten also round out the cast.
More details await as production wraps in three weeks, with the first official teaser footage coming tentatively in September.
