Smokin’ Aces director Joe Carnahan will be heading up the English-language remake of Gareth Evans’ 2011 brutal and visceral martial arts/action flick The Raid: Redemption with Frank Grillo signed on for the lead. XYZ Films, the folks behind this new version, released the news this afternoon via twitter with the following short video of the pair discussing the project. Carnahan followed up with a pair of clarifying tweets.
💥 BIG NEWS WEDNESDAY💥 #TheRaid @carnojoe #FrankGrillo pic.twitter.com/ALhgZWgafq
— XYZ Films (@XYZFilms) February 15, 2017
THE RAID remake will hew closer in tone & feel to THE GREY and NARC.@Ghuevans is producing alongside & has given us his full blessing.
— Joe Carnahan (@carnojoe) February 15, 2017
It's not a remake. It's a reimagining of the same scenario.
Everybody take a deep breath.
We won't disappoint you, rabid-fanboy-from-Hell. https://t.co/ShPcXmng5n— Joe Carnahan (@carnojoe) February 15, 2017
You can't remake The Raid, guys. It's a fantastic film. So, ask yourselves why would we be doing it, unless we had something really special.
— Joe Carnahan (@carnojoe) February 15, 2017
For those of us who think that The Raid is a near perfect film and remaking it would be a fool’s errand, it certainly sounds like Carnahan agrees. In the video he mentions that the film would be more of a reimagining rather than a remake. The original is a great balance between bone-jarring action and the story of two brothers on opposite sides of the law. Carnahan has show he is adept at action with the bulk of his filmography. And his tweeted promise that this remake will be closer in tone to his films Narc and The Grey, both of which were more than just mere action flicks, is indeed heartening. There is no word yet as to who is handling the screenplay detail, but seeing as how Carnahan has written all of his previous films I don’t see why we should think that he won’t here.
Grillo’s involvement is a holdover from when Screen Gems and The Expendables 3 directer Patrick Hughes were developing the project. Although Taylor Kitsch also signed onto that proposed iteration of the project, it fell apart in 2015.
