sandwichjohnfilms

The attempt to make a new version – once touted as a remake – of Gareth Evans' excellent action thriller The Raid has had a typically torturous development battle with actors and directors named then departing. Now, it there is confirmation that Frank Grillo (who has been attached for a while) and his The Grey director Joe Carnahan are involved in a new take on the idea. As revealed on Carnahan and Grillo's Instagram pages and the Twitter feed of XYZ Films, the plan is to create a fresh spin on the idea of Evans' tower block-based blend of siege movie and martial arts action, with a new idea and different fighting styles. So it's not a remake, more a different angle on the concept. And this has been quietly known for around a month, as Grillo explained to We Live Film's Fred Topel in January. Grillo explained then that he and Carnahan were in the midst of talks with XYZ to get the rights to do this, and the deal is finally settled. So what makes this one d...

Here is a brand new Indonesian trailer for The Raid 2: Berandal . It seems as if, surely, it must be telling us too much, but Evans promises "only spoilers for the first act set-up". The Raid 2: Berandal picks up the story two hours after The Raid (Evans says "The [potential] Raid 3 would take place two hours before The Raid 2 ends"...), and sweeps Rama ( Iko Uwais ) into a much broader world of corruption and violence as he infiltrates the ranks of a ruthless Jakarta crime syndicate. As you'll just have seen, it looks even more gloriously violent than its predecessor, if that's possible. But it's odd how balletic it all looks when devoid of its crunchy sound effects. Can you have serene arm-breaking? We feel like we just saw one. Julie Estelle, Alex Abbad, Yayan Ruhian, Mathias Muchus, Tio Pakusadewo, Marsha Timothy, Cecep Arif Rahman, Matsuda Ryuhei, Endo Kenichi and Kitamura Kazuki are all part of the cast for this one. Evans has previously pr...