EARLIER REPORT:
Fans of Gareth Huw Evans’s 2011 action thriller, The Raid, may have noticed one other title that’s gone quite a while without much mention in the headlines. That title, of course, Killers co-helmer Timo Tjahjanto’s Indonesian crime epic, The Night Comes For Us, for which The Raid co-star Joe Taslim was the subject of much buzz when he was officially cast for the lead in April of last year.
Well, if you fit the profile and have long been pining for more details surrounding the film, the good news is that you’re not going crazy. Unfortunately, the not-so-good news is that the production of the film is “officially on-hold”, according to a source affiliated with the film. This update comes following the mysterious disappearance of the film’s IMDb page for some time now and there are no immediate answers explaining the “who’s”, the “why’s”, the “how’s” or the “wtf’s” of the matter, so any number of questions can be raised from this and it may be long before we hear any specifics. Moreover though, the biggest question of all is what lies next for the film?
Building on his momentum with a stellar screenfighting performance in Fast And Furious 6 , Taslim was set for the role of Ito, a gangland enforcer caught amidst the Triad’s bloody ursup upon his return home from a stint abroad. Evans was to direct the action with The Raid lead actor Iko Uwais choreographing the fights for Taslim along fellow ‘Raid’ alums, actress Julie Estelle and actors Yayan Ruhian, Arifin Putra and Oka Antara, the latter who starred in Tjahjanto’s Killers back in February. The film eventually made huge strides in the market at the top of the year before selling worldwide and even landing a home in North America in January.
Will it ever be taken off-hold? Well, in the current film climate we are in right now with this industry, uncertainty is the closest thing we have to a complete answer, and I know that isn’t saying much. Details will follow soon enough, presumably, but I hope we see a miracle happen here, because that logline is too damn intriguing to leave without screen treatment.
Ruhian is currently working on the set of Anggy Umbara’s Comic 8: Casino Kings with co-star and former TNCFU cast member Prisia Nasution for next year while Uwais recently finished things up with Frank Grillo and Bojana Novakovic in Liam O’Donnell upcoming Sci-Fi thriller, Beyond Skyline.
Stay tuned for more info.