Patrick Hughes Reveals His Concepts For THE RAID Remake

Patrick Hughes takes a center seat with the action veteran cast of The Expendables 3 – C/W from T/L: Terry Crews, Wesley Snipes, Jason Statham, Randy Couture, Patrick Hughes, Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren

Today’s news is all the buzz with the latest exclusive reports from several sites on last year’s set visits of The Expendables 3, which action choreographer J.J. Perry has coined as the biggest action movie he has done throughout his entire career. “…this is like if you took ‘Expendables’ one and ‘Expendables’ two and put it in a blender and poured a bottle of hot sauce on it,” Perry says. “…that’s what we’re doing right now, and we’re in it right now, and I’m loving every minute of it.”.

The film is directed by none other than Red Hill helmer Patrick Hughes who was ultimately lead actor Sylvester Stallone‘s pick to direct the film. So it may have come very well to our credit as action fans when it was officially announced last month Screen Gems made Hughes their pick to direct the forthcoming remake of filmmaker Gareth Huw Evans‘s 2011 blockbuster action epic, The Raid (a.k.a. Serbuan Maut) which crossed over to the states for a limited release in March the following year. And while things are still currently developing for the film, we now have a few words from the director on what may lie ahead for the film’s production formula, in addition to what they might incorporate in the story in relation to capturing the essence of the action.

“We have a really, really interesting take on that film,” Hughes says to ComingSoon.net’s own Spencer Perry. “One thing, obviously the original just blew my mind and I was fortunate enough to catch up with Gareth Evans in LA at the premiere of ‘The Raid 2.’ The thing that blew my mind with that film was the aesthetics and the fight sequences but also the simplicity of the premise, and there’s so much you can do with that. So our take on it is really interesting and I feel like if anything what I want to do is elevate the emotional aspect of it, and I think those are my favorite action films of all time when you can balance the action and the emotion, and what he did with his first ‘Raid’ was phenomenal..”.

Hughes also went on to discuss the set up for the forthcoming premise of the new film, hinting at a more grounded setting based on real-world events. Hughes states in-full, “Certainly, we’re not there to recreate that film beat for beat, with the set up we’re following a DEA task team, which was implemented by the Bush administration after September 11th when they realized that terrorism and the drug trade were so closely aligned. So they set up a DEA task team that’s six units and they work across borders and sort of act like Navy SEALS. You never read about it, you never hear about it, but they go on these missions. So that’s a really interesting take and a really nice premise and also what’s interesting on this take on it is the clash of cultures and the clash of martial arts, the fighting styles, which is something that’s going to be a lot of fun when we’ve really started pre-vizzing stuff.”.

Granted, this wouldn’t be the first time a film delved into such a setting, but this does set up what appears to sound like a truly visceral plot point that American audienced and film fans alike could relate to once we learn more about it. And with just the right script and cast, The Raid may very well be an American success story apart from its 2011 Indonesian predecessor.

What still begs an answer is the question regarding who will be cast. My guess is that answer is still well on the way, as well as whether or not the concept discussed here would (if it at all could) go into a sequel much like the recently-released The Raid 2: Berandal.

As always, time well.

Evans is executive producing the forthcoming remake along with XYZ Films, who is also behind the production of the original two films and the forthcoming third movie in the Indonesian franchise also to be directed by Evans. Out Of The Furnace co-scribe Brad Inglesby is providing the screenplay, with martial arts choreography by the action originators of the franchise, Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian and their team.

Directed by Evans Uwais currently stars with Ruhian in The Raid 2, which is now playing in theaters nationwide, with more worldwide releases pending.

The Expendables 3 hits theaters August 15, 2014.

H/T: ComingSoon.net