Have you seen The Raid: Redemption (Filmstalker Review)? No? Well you should do and you should get your hands on it as soon as possible. This is an action film to top all action films and has moments that you can hardly believe are real, moments where you think must be done with special effects but the surprise is that they’re real, they’re physical.

Is it a surprise then that with the success of the film Hollywood have decided to remake it? No, not really, a remake of a strong independent film that did well at the box office and has become a bit of a cult? Why wouldn’t Hollywood want to remake it?

It has disaster written all over it. The Raid: Redemption (Filmstalker Review) was a fantastic film and the Welsh director, yes he’s going to carry that moniker for some time, Gareth Evans is well into the sequel, one that promises to deliver more insanity.

My issue is that I really can’t see how this film can be remade in Hollywood with actors who aren’t highly trained martial artists and are free from the insurance system of Hollywood films.

Here’s the story from The Wrap through JoBlo, Patrick Hughes has signed to direct the film from Brad Inglesby’s script which, obviously, adapts the idea of the original film The Raid: Redemption (Filmstalker Review) which Gareth Evans wrote and directed and was based in Jakarta in Indonesia.

Brad Inglesby wrote the fantastic Out of the Furnace (Filmstalker review) and Patrick Hughes directed the equally as strong Red Hill, an Australian western with bags of style. He’s currently director on The Expendables 3 and is now signed up for The Raid remake.

Rumours have started about casting for the film and the article also suggests that the Hemsworth brothers have been mentioned in relation to the film, however there’s no real idea yet of who would take the leads and what the new plot would be.

I suspect a lot like the original where a tactical police team are sent to storm a building to take down the gang and their leader who have ensconced themselves in a residential block and recruited the residents to assist them. The team have to work their way to the top floor and capture the leader in order to take the entire block.

Why do I have such reservations? Well watch the original and you’ll understand, this is a violent film with amazing stunts that, at some points, blew me away with their authenticity. What will Hollywood have to do? Zoom the camera in and block choreograph every fight within an inch of its life, cutting between actor’s faces and close-ups of the stuntmen’s bodily parts mid-fight. Horrendous.

My hopes are with the director of Red Hill leading the way but I can’t see him hitting the same intensity and action levels as the original, only The Raid 2 from Gareth Evans could possibly do that. Mind you, Inglesby’s script could produce something very interesting, after all the script he delivered for Out of the Furnace (Filmstalker review) resulted in a really good film that was far from expected.