Grillo and Carnahan to tackle “The Raid” remake!

Back in 2012, the Indonesian martial arts thriller “The Raid: Redemption” hit theaters across the globe and became an instant action classic. The film’s release was accompanied by the news that an American remake was already in the works at Screen Gems, with “The Expendables 3” auteur Patrick Hughes attached as director and Taylor Kitsch in talks to star. However, all three parties would eventually drop out of the project, and while “The Raid 2” arrived to equal acclaim in 2014, it’s been mostly crickets on the remake ever since…

However, it can now be confirmed that Hollywood’s remake of “The Raid” is officially underway once more, under the stewardship of Frank Grillo and Joe Carnahan, the latter being attached as both writer and director, with original director Gareth Evans also on board as producer!

Grillo, a noted MMA enthusiast, has emerged as a rising action star in recent years, following appearances as the villainous Crossbones in 2014’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” and last year’s “Captain America: Civil War“, along with memorable turns in the latter two chapters of “The Purge” franchise, the MMA-drama “Warrior“, and the upcoming “Wolf Warrior 2”.

As it is, his connection to “The Raid” films predates the forthcoming remake – Grillo will also be seen later this year in the upcoming “Beyond Skyline”, alongside the series original stars Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian. While both were sadly underutilized in 2015’s otherwise terrific “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, the film’s recently released preview clip, which you can see below, would indicate that that fortunately is not likely to be the case for their second sci-fi excursion.

While some fans of the original films have expressed consternation at the idea of remaking one of the most acclaimed contemporary martial arts films, Carnahan took to Twitter to articulate that, far from simply recreating the original film in English, the remake is intended as more of a re-interpretation of the original. Between that and Gareth Evans direct involvement in the film in a producerial capacity, and “The Raid” remake could very well be something of a proper re-imagining that exists alongside the original but viewed through a fresh lens, something martial arts fans have most certainly seen done well before (i.e. Bruce Lee’s “Fist of Fury” and Jet Li’s “Fist of Legend“.) You can see Carnahan’s tweets on the project below.

Stay tuned for more info on “The Raid” remake as it arrives, and watch out for Frank Grillo, Iko Uwais, and Yayan Ruhian in “Beyond Skyline” later this year!