The Expendables 3 may be tanking harder than a battle between Arnold Schwarzeneggers sagging pectorals and gravity, but that doesn’t mean that director Patrick Hughes doesn’t have any work lined up. In fact, he’ll be helming a remake of The Raid, which will have Frank “The Purge: Anarchy” Grillo as a lead. Grillo won’t be alone however, with a cast that includes 11 other leads.
Hughes spoke to Grantland about The Expendables 3, before briefly veering off and talking about The Raid remake:
He describes his version as being in the vein of Black Hawk Down and Zero Dark Thirty, signaling major departures. He’s casting the 12 integral roles of the film’s ensemble, with sights on shooting early next year. “After that, I’m pretty sure I won’t do a movie with ensembles, camouflage, and guns for a while.”
Hughes understands what he was brought in to do for The Expendables 3. “It’s Sly’s franchise. I’m a part of the puzzle. It’s not a personal movie, it’s a big studio popcorn spectacle.” But while it may not be the most prestigious directing gig in the world, Hughes made the movie he wanted to make. And it was fun. “If you can get paid for it, it’s a win-win situation,” he says. Setting off explosions without taking a mortgage out on your house? Hughes just came to Hollywood and fulfilled the American dream.
That’s a bit of a departure from the original film already. Despite starring an entire squad of expendable police officers, The Raid quickly became the Iko Uwais show, as that officer Silated seven kinds of lesser Silat out of the bodies of various gangster tenants. Which all ties into an idea that Hughes has for the remake, as he mentioned a while ago:
Certainly, we’re not there to recreate that film beat for beat, with the set up we’re following a DEA task team, which was implemented by the Bush administration after September 11th when they realized that terrorism and the drug trade were so closely aligned. So they set up a DEA task team that’s six units and they work across borders and sort of act like Navy SEALS. You never read about it, you never hear about it, but they go on these missions. So that’s a really interesting take and a really nice premise and also what’s interesting on this take on it is the clash of cultures and the clash of martial arts, the fighting styles, which is something that’s going to be a lot of fun when we’ve really started pre-vizzing stuff.
Last Updated: August 19, 2014
Rinceable
August 19, 2014 at 11:55
NO!
Weanerdog
August 19, 2014 at 11:57
As I was reading this I was thinking Rince is going to be so pissed.
Rinceable
August 19, 2014 at 12:01
BWAHAHAh 😉
Weanerdog
August 19, 2014 at 12:08
What I don’t get is why don’ they just go and make a new movie as opposed to rehash something that they are going to screw up.
Kervyn Cloete
August 19, 2014 at 12:56
And based on what I’m hearing, the movie is going to be far enough removed from the original concept that they probably could have called it something else.
Weanerdog
August 19, 2014 at 13:24
That is kind of my point. I also IMDBed this diretcor fellow as I had not really heard of him before and wow he has a resume in film to match my own so I can see how he is the perfect choice.