With its hard-hitting martial arts fights and stunts, action fans last year were bowled over by director Gareth Evans’ high-octane, unrelenting The Raid: Redemption. Evans is currently finishing up shooting on the sequel, and has found that trying to deliver a film that would out-do the original is taking a bit longer than anticipated.
Speaking with Collider, Evans explained how the film’s production ballooned from its initial 100-day schedule –
We’re still shooting it right now. We’re about a month and a half away from finishing the production of it. It’s got the same kind of action beats in terms of the style of the action, but our approach this time is to go way more cinematic with it. We’re expanding the universe out. We’re taking the story out of that little claustrophobic setting and putting it out into the streets and into the high end gangsters in Jakarta. It’s a lot bigger in scope. So fingers crossed people will kind of come along for the ride again.
Evans is still optimistic that he will have the film ready for audiences by early 2014.
We should be finished with post by the end of this year and then maybe early next year we can have the release.
Personally, if it takes a little bit longer than anticipated to get The Raid 2 made, I am fine with that. The first film was such a visceral experience that while I can’t wait to see what he has in store for the follow up, I would have rather have it right than have it right now.
