Anna Daniels
What’s going on with The Raid remake? The project was announced back in 2011, but has yet to materialize (which might not be such a bad thing). Well, now there’s an update from director Joe Carnahan that reveals the film is still happening, and it has a new title. But that’s not all – the movie Carnahan is making is technically no longer a remake of The Raid. Confused yet?
In case you need a quick update, here’s the deal. In 2011, Gareth Evans released the groundbreaking action film The Raid, starring Iko Uwais. The film became something of a cult phenomenon and even spawned a sequel – The Raid 2. You might think a recent, popular film like this doesn’t need a remake, but that’s never stopped Hollywood before. They’ve longed to remake the Indonesian pic since 2011, with Patrick Hughes first being announced to direct, and both Chris and Liam Hemsworth being considered to star for Screen Gems. Later, Taylor Kitsch was attached. Eventually, both Hughes and Screen Gems departed, with the remake landing in the hands of XYZ Films, who hired Joe Carnahan to direct. That was in 2017.
So what’s new with the project? According to Carnahan, many things. For one, it’s no longer called The Raid. According to an interview with Carnahan hosted by Collider last night, the remake is now called Zeno. And in fact, it’s not even a Raid movie anymore. Carnahan says that he’s no longer working with XYZ Films, who still own The Raid rights. Instead, Carnahan is taking the script he wrote for The Raid remake and using it to make a completely new movie.
In the original The Raid, a team of elite cops raid (hey, that’s the title) an apartment building controlled by a crime lord. One of the cops, played by Iko Uwais, has a personal connection to the operation: his brother, Donny Alamsyah, is a member of the crime lord’s gang.
“The version that I wrote, [the police] don’t ever intend to actually go in [to the crime lord’s building],” Carnahan told Collider. “They think that they’re gonna move this guy. So their whole operation is, ‘we’re gonna hit this guy in transit.’ It’s not until they realize, ‘Oh, they’re digging in, they’re not moving, we’ve got to now go in and get him.’ It’s a very, very different script…It’s really, really, really about the brothers.”
Carnahan added that negotiations are underway with a “big star” to play the lead, and another actor is already signed on to play the villain (they’re not saying who, though).
Does this mean XYZ Films might eventually get around to making their own remake of The Raid, since they still own the rights? Perhaps. But it looks like Carnahan is going to beat them to it, as he plans on shooting Zeno immediately after he makes his next film, Leo from Toledo.
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