THE RAID 2 opens this weekend, so I was a little surprised to see a deleted scene from Gareth Evans' new movie has already surfaced online. The scene is titled "Gang Wars," and Evans recently released the clip and a note explaining why it was cut on Vimeo. While the scene doesn't contain any spoilers, it is incredibly violent, and you probably shouldn't watch this if you have a heart condition. The clip is intense and bloody as hell, and although it was cut, it gives us a great look at a bit of the ultra violence that will be featured in the upcoming film.
Take a look:
The Raid 2: Berandal (Deleted Scene: Gang War) from Merantau Films on Vimeo.
Here's Gareth Evans on why the scene was cut:
This is one of a few deleted scenes taken from the film. Reasons to cut were entirely down to pacing issues. This was probably the hardest for me to cut due to the fact that the production on this scene lasted around 6 days of shooting, it cost us a f*ck load to make and it served to escalate the gang war out onto the streets involving people outside of the closed off inter-gang politics.
At the end of the day though, after discussing its worth it took us away from the central theme for a little too long with characters that would only exist in this scene alone.
Whenever I edit a film – every scene feels like a precious moment. "No f*cking way can I cut this" is a regular phrase I utter at Aram (one of the producers at XYZ Films who patiently worked with me to get the film to it's final cut) but his patience was always a virtue and it's when you make a cut and no longer miss it from the bigger picture a few days down the line that you realize it was the right decision to make.
But I still want you guys to see the chaos and the mayhem we had in store, and so with the release of the film coming in a few days time – here's a sample of one of the action scenes that simply didn't make it. Enjoy.
THE RAID 2 will be unleashed into theaters on March 28th, 2014.