The Raid Remake

[Pennywise]

New interview with Carnahan on the story and fight scenes.

Exclusive: Joe Carnahan Reveals the Plot of His ‘The Raid’ Remake

You meet Frank’s character having just rotated back from a really, really, brutal special forces operation. He’s got soft tissue damage in his hands, and his rotator cuff is blown out, and they take fluid off his knees, and the doctors basically tell him, “Listen you’re at the razor’s edge of PTSD and you need three months of just nothing, some R&R, because you’re jacked up.’ And in that space he gets the message that his brother, who he thought had been dead for four years, is actually alive and working for a very bad guy in Caracas, and in 18 hours they’re gonna kill his brother. These forces are gonna descend and murder the bad guy and murder the brother, so do you wanna go and get your brother, who you thought is dead? Do you want that opportunity? So that’s where we start.”

“I want the entire movie to feel like the knife fight between Adam Goldberg and the German in Saving Private Ryan. Everything. In every great action film there’s always an emotional quotient that you’re dealing with… You have to have a sense of stakes. For all of the tremendous excess of those last two Matrix films, which I enjoyed the hell out of, they never really got to the tension of just Keanu Reeves trying to answer a phone at the end of the first movie. There was great pathos, there was a great sense of, ‘Is he gonna make it?’ The spectacle I think outweighs the heart and soul of it, and that’s what you have to remember is you’ve gotta have that attached.”

It’s still unclear when, exactly, Carnahan’s The Raid remake will happen, but with him noting that pre could be underway in the next couple of weeks, we could be hearing some big news about the project soon.

We’ll see, but I wouldn’t count on it:

 

[Luigi]

Totally forgot about this.

 

[Lencho01]

As time goes by, maybe that increases it’s chances of being better received if it ever really gets made.

 

[Pennywise]

Exclusive: Joe Carnahan's 'The Raid' Remake Gets New Title, Is Technically Not a Remake Anymore

Joe Carnahan’s remake of modern-day action classic The Raid has been floating around for years now, with the filmmaker last updating us in April 2019. So, naturally, our own Steve Weintraub asked yet again when the director and Frank Grillo sat down for a Q&A after the Collider screening of Carnahan’s Boss Level. Turns out, The Raid remake is…technically no longer a remake of The Raid. Carnahan revealed he has parted ways with XYZ Films, who own the rights to the Raid films, and is moving forward with the same script he co-wrote with Adam G. Simon (Point Blank), but under a different title: Zeno, named for the story’s main character.

According to Carnahan and Grillo, negotiations are underway with a “big name” to star, while another name that they “love” is already signed on to play the villain. The duo plan to next shoot a film titled Leo from Toledo with Mel Gibson and move on to Zenoimmediately afterward.

Carnahan also offered an explanation of how his film differs from the original Raid film. In director Gareth Evans‘ 2011 version, an elite police-squad assault an apartment block in Jakarta, Indonesia to eliminate a crime lord and his lieutenants. Among the officers is a rookie named Rama (Iko Uwais), whose estranged older brother Andi (Donny Alamsyah) is among the crime lord’s crew.

“The version that I wrote, they don’t ever intend to actually go in [to the building],” Carnahan said. “They think that they’re gonna’ move this guy. So their whole operation is, ‘we’re gonna’ hit this guy in transit.’ It’s not until they realize, ‘Oh, they’re digging in, they’re not moving, we’ve got to now go in and get him.’ It’s a very, very different script…It’s really, really, really about the brothers.”

Raid Remake Writer Talks Zeno and Why They Made the Change

The Indonesian film The Raid has been lauded for nearly a decade for its impressive accomplishments not only with its narrative but also with the intensity of its action sequences, meaning it was only a matter of time before an English-language remake took shape, but writer Adam Simonrecently detailed that the planned remake began to evolve into a different enough concept that it will now be its own film, titled "Zeno." The original film saw a police squad enter a high-rise in hopes of apprehending the crime boss who lived on the top floor, only for the building's occupants to fight back against the police force, so, while Zenowill have narrative differences, Simon promises The Raid fans will love the new film.

"The thing [director] Joe Carnahan, [star] Frank Grillo, and I saw eye to eye on from the jump, was that it wasn’t a remake, it was a reimagining," Simon shared with ComicBook.com. "There is no need to redo something that has already been done exceptionally well."

He added, "When I started writing and sending pages over to Joe, it turned into something all it’s own. It became its own animal. Through that process, a story emerged. A tale about two brothers and an examination of why we can fight so viciously with the ones we care for most. It kept evolving that way from the first draft until the current draft we have now. Zeno is comparable to The Raid as Die Hard is to Dredd."

Simon went on to offer some new details about the film's narrative, which will extend past the film's violence to serve as a commentary on society's fixation on combat.

"Zeno is one of the brothers. He’s an operator and broken at the top of the story," Simon pointed out. "He is a guy who, in many ways, is at the point of hanging it all up. Then, unexpectedly he is forced to go back in on an op. Zeno is in no condition to fight but he has to. He has to dig down deep to rediscover his will to fight. I felt for the character, I am constantly trying to turn over a new leaf, trying to hang up the violence in me, but Tinseltown tough guys seem hell-bent on testing my f-cking patience."

Zeno won't be a total departure from the story that inspired it, as fans can still anticipate intense action.


"It is one hell of a story with a lot of heart," Simon confessed. "The central theme of brotherhood and family remains intact as we move through the gears and scream around the track at a face-splitting speed. I will say this about The Raid films. If you loved them as I did, you will love Zeno."

 

[Kane52630]

That's probably for the better. That way they can have more creative freedom.

 

[Deck Rickard]

Okay, I’m on board. Grillo is great and it sounds like Carnahan and him understand that they could never hope to replicate what made the original so perfect. So they went in a new direction and it’s probably a good thing. Wonder who they will get to play the brother.

 

[Pennywise]

 

[kguillou]

Patrick Hughes, director of the worst Expendables movie and those silly ass Hitman Boydguard films is directing a remake of unquestionably the greatest action film series of all time? And Bay producing?

I just....cant with Hollywood sometimes.

 

[MOVIELORD101]

Just......WHY?!?

 

[henzINNIT]

Patrick Hughes, director of the worst Expendables movie and those silly ass Hitman Boydguard films is directing a remake of unquestionably the greatest action film series of all time? And Bay producing?

I just....cant with Hollywood sometimes.

It's a perfect illustration of studio mentality. The Raid is amazing, so instead of hiring the talent that made it to make something new, they will just do the original over again but without the talent.

 

[Doctor Jones]

I still haven't seen these movies. But the first is finally streaming on the Roku channel so I'm definitely gonna check it out.

 

[Kane52630]

I still haven't seen these movies. But the first is finally streaming on the Roku channel so I'm definitely gonna check it out.

I would also suggest The Night Comes for Us as the unofficial Raid 3 movie.

 

[Doctor Jones]

I would also suggest The Night Comes for Us as the unofficial Raid 3 movie.

How's the second one?

 

[Kane52630]

How's the second one?

I actually liked the 2nd one more than the first in terms of direction and cinematography. It also expands the world a lot more.

 

[kguillou]

The Raid 2 is absolutely incredible. the action scenes are some of the best that have ever been put to celluloid, period. Its also one of the best theatrical experiences I've ever had. I got to see it when it had its limited theatrical run and my crowd was so lively and ate the movie up.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

You just can't improve on perfection man, and I still have no idea why this happening, especially after the Cowboy Bebop debacle which alone should have been enough to kill this immediately.

Netflix has such a bad track record with their foreign adaptations right now and while I still enjoy some of their stuff, they haven't done anything yet to convince me this will turn out to be any good.

They should just focus on making more films in the vein of Extraction which has enough The Raid and John Wick DNA already in it, but also works as its own thing which is why it was so successful IMO.

 

[Luigi]

Patrick Hughes, director of the worst Expendables movie and those silly ass Hitman Boydguard films is directing a remake of unquestionably the greatest action film series of all time? And Bay producing?

I just....cant with Hollywood sometimes.

All of The Expendable movies have mediocre action, never understood the praise for them.

 

[kguillou]

Expendables 2 is a guilty pleasure for me, seeing all those 80s icons together tickled my fancy but yes, youre right, technically all the Expendables movies have OKAY-ish action but the third one was especially mediocre all around.

 

[Deck Rickard]

Well, **** it. Might as well cast Stallone and Arnie as the two brother characters while you’re at it. And Nic Cage as Mad Dog.

 

[kguillou]

Well, **** it. Might as well cast Stallone and Arnie as the two brother characters while you’re at it. And Nic Cage as Mad Dog.

I’d watch the Heck outta that!!!

 

[Erik20]

I would also suggest The Night Comes for Us as the unofficial Raid 3 movie.

I watched that recently. It might be the most brutal/gory movie I've ever seen. They do stuff that you won't even see in most horror movies... I loved it (If you don't like gore, it's really not for you)

Also I doubt they are going to make this remake as violent as the original. It's probably going to suck... but I'll end up watching it anyway since it's on Netflix.

 

[moviedoors]

I hold out hope becuase Patrick Hughes' first movie, RED HILL, is terrific.

 

[metaphysician]

The only thing I know about The Raid 2 is the one fight scene I ran across via Youtube, where the obvious Old Master is taken down via hilariously blatant Zapp Brannigan tactics. "Yes, you are a nigh-invincible warrior able to kill a small army with your bare hands. Sadly, I have a small army, and I am totally willing to *sacrifice them all*, just to tire you out enough that you are actually killable."

*cough*