Papa Vinyard here, now here's a little somethin' for ya...
I've heard the rumor bouncing around before today, but The Wrap has confirmed that RED HILL/EXPENDABLES 3 director Patrick Hughes is the guy they're tasking with adapting THE RAID: REDEMPTION into an English-language Hollywood remake. More than that, he's looking at casting Liam and Chris Hemsworth in the lead roles, a badass S.W.A.T. member and his criminal brother.
Word is that he's not going to feature "the same martial art fighting styles" as the original (namely the Indonesian-developed Pencak Silat), but Screen Gems' choice of Hughes shows that they are taking the film seriously as an upstart action property. I wasn't head-over-heels for RED HILL, but it showed that Hughes has a way with an action scene, and obviously EXPENDABLES 3 will be his rite-of-passage into the big-budget clubhouse. Unless they seriously restructure the story, I can't imagine they'll need a shit-ton of money to get this off right, so I'm hoping for a melding of the styles Hughes used on the smaller-scale RED HILL and his presumably massive, explosion-heavy work on EXP3NDABLES.
As for the Hemsworths, I think casting brothers in Iko Uwais' and Donny Alamsyah's roles is a cool gimmick that should immediately create an interesting tension between the characters. The two have never really acted together in a starring capacity, and this is a good showcase for their respective talents while cementing their individual identities for most audiences. Another big plus: even though neither is a martial artist on Iko or Yahan Ruhian's level, both have action experience, and have believable ass-kicking abilities to match their marquee-level good looks.
And everyone's Australian! That's gotta create some sense of synergy, right? But as far as I know, this is as far as the Aussie factor extends, and the action of THE RAID isn't going to be transplanted to Sydney or Melbourne or anything.
What do you guys think? Does this news sort of make the idea of a RAID remake a little more palatable, or can Hughes and the Hemsworths go straight to hell for even considering doing this flick?
-Vincent Zahedi
”Papa Vinyard”
vincentzahedi@gmail.com
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