With the cast and crew of Indonesian martial arts film Merantau now in the final stages of pre-production for their upcoming feature The Raid - production is scheduled to start in March - director Gareth Huw Evans and director of photography Matt Flannery have both launched behind the scenes blogs to detail the process of creating the film.
Merantau stars Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian return in this one, a much more hard edged action film that Evans says was inspired by the core concept of Chow Yun Fat star vehicle Peace Hotel.
In the interests of full disclosure I should point out that - as became the case with Merantau - I have some direct involvement with this one. In fact, I will be visiting the set in March and you can expect a full report back then.
Merantau stars Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian return in this one, a much more hard edged action film that Evans says was inspired by the core concept of Chow Yun Fat star vehicle Peace Hotel.
What Evans is making with The Raid is essentially the film he wished Peace Hotel had been, the story of a police unit raiding a building completely controlled and populated by gangsters.Since I was a kid, I was obsessed with a Chow Yun Fat film called "Peace Hotel" (Directed by Wai Ka Fai). I was never able to track it down in the UK and only had the poster image below and a vague synopsis to go by. I loved the concept of an isolated building that offered sanctuary to criminals, but when I finally saw it over 15 years later my "imagined" version of the film was completely different to what I eventually saw. I had imagined a dark, noirish film with danger on every floor with the action confined to an interior space filled with shadows and dread. I also imagined it would have a lot more action, instead of the light hearted, sweet romantic angle the film eventually took.
In the interests of full disclosure I should point out that - as became the case with Merantau - I have some direct involvement with this one. In fact, I will be visiting the set in March and you can expect a full report back then.
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Fantastic. Merantau was a far better film than I though it would be and was a much better "film" than the other films it has been compared to. Look forward to seeing more.