The Raid remake delayed; potential casting hopefuls revealed

May 27th 2014, 10:07pm

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Depending on how you feel about Patrick Hughes’ remake of THE RAID this may come as a good news or bad news. Production that was scheduled to start in September of this year has now been pushed to at least the first quarter of 2015. According to the report by Variety it's possible that casting is the cause of the delay.

Their source names Luke Evans, Anthony Mackie, Frank Grillo and Ethan Hawke as frontrunners for roles while another source of theirs says casting hasn't started. So basically they could be holding out for a bigger name or names to attach themselves to the project. While I’m glad they are not in a hurry to release the movie, one has to realize that more and more people will check out the original and THE RAID 2 (as you should) thereby deflating this remake even more.

Last month we interviewed Hughes and he talked about the remake; he touched on plot points, what he loved about the original, and mentions being in the middle of casting:

It was recently announced that you'd be directing THE RAID remake. What can you tell us about that?

It’s a really exciting project. Actually, I had the pleasure of catching up with Gareth [Evans, director of the original film] the other night in L.A., who’s EP [Executive Producer] on it. This one is a little more broader canvas. It’s a very different film, very different style of filmmaking. It centers around a DEA FAST (Foreign-Deployed Advisory and Support Team) Team that was formed during the Bush administration when the crossover between terrorism and the narcotics trade were so closely intertwined that they created a task force – I believe there are six teams that operate – they’re sort of like Navy SEALS but they operate in the world of narcotics. And, these teams work across borders so it centers around a team that goes across the border and, y’know, all hell breaks loose.

One thing that blew me away with THE RAID, along with everyone else, was – you know, what was phenomenal – it wasn’t cut up, y’know. You could clearly tell that there weren’t stunt doubles involved because you weren’t cutting around the action, it was done in “oners” and that comes down to rigorous training and having incredible fight choreography play out. We’re just in the middle of casting right now.

Here’s a great example of what he’s talking about. Also, how do you feel about this remake?