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Gareth Evans: Back in 2008 I made a film calledMerantau.
I tried for two years to get the budget for it but couldnt get it off the ground.
And then the next thing I know Im like, okay, well weve got to do something.
Its been two years.
So we went off and started working onThe Raid 1instead as a backup project, as a plan B.
What was bugging me about it?
And the biggest thing that was annoying me was the fact that the lead characters motivation was sketchy.
Like, why would he stay with them if theyre in a gang war?
He could just leave.
And so I started thinking, how do I keep him there.
Whats my force to keep him there?
And I said well, if he was an undercover cop he has to stay, thats his job.
He has to stay then and not let on that theres anything wrong with him.
So then I was working onThe Raid 1and I was like okay, well lets make this a sequel.
I went back to that script, retrofitted it, rewrote it maybe 30, 40 percent.
Added in police procedural stuff, more investigative elements to it.
Because in that pre-existing one I already had Hammer Girl.
I already had Baseball Bat Man.
I already had Bejo.
I had the son and the father and the jealousy.
Just didnt have the police procedural stuff.
So that was like a major part of the rewrite.
So with Rama, you had a ready-made character and motivation.
Yeah, exactly, yeah.
Hes got to do this for his family.
Like 80 percent of it was studio based.
Trying to create an interesting visual landscape was difficult in that film.
It had more of a hard-edged gritty, documentary style feel to it in a way.
Were going to change it up a lot.
I want to make it more vibrant.
I got really specific when it came to the Japanese guys.
Everything was not bad in terms of the logistics of the real location.
Car chases are a f**king nightmare though.
The car chase was brutal no matter where you shot it.
Same with the taxi attack.
That stuff was so hard.
So before you already start youve lost 20 percent of your shooting time, 25 percent sometimes.
We havent even reset the scene yet.
So then were coming back down the road and all these cars are swerving around us.
Some of them are swerving at us.
Theres not really the infrastructure in Indonesia yet for doing a car chase.
Because right now they send us like two policemen to control a 400 meter road.
I read that the taxi sequence was based on a true event.
What happened was this.
You remember the London riots about three years ago in the summertime?
A friend of mine works for the police force.
A friend of his is also a policeman.
And he fell down to the floor.
He dropped down inside the car.
And as he looked up they were all just reaching in with knives trying to stab him.
So thats the real life version.
In mine I have like bodies hanging on.
They keep chasing after him.
The violence in the movie is just as intense as the first one, if not more so.
Do you try things and say no, thats too much?
Is there anything you wouldnt do or show?
For me its like this.
Everything we do is a visceral reaction.
Lets say we stab him in the shoulder with the hammer.
We dont stay on there for a while and see all the detail and twist it around or whatever.
So theres a difference between that and then what I like.
I attempt to respect what my dad says about film violence.
My dad was a massive, massive fan of cinema, he still is to this day.
But he used to be a computer teacher.
I would always pick likeCommandoor something or Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan.
He would tell me why that was wrong, why what happened in that scene was particularly sadistic.
And then call me back in when the violence had gone.
And thats my limitation.
Thats my cut-off point when it comes to violence.
Raid 3, I have an idea for it.
I know what I want to do with it.
So whereasThe Raid 2starts two hours afterThe Raid 1finishes.Raid 3starts three hours beforeThe Raid 2finishes.
And its all about the consequences of that and branching off into that story.
And in terms of doing something in Hollywood.
I have two projects in development.
One with Universal, one with MRC.
I am currently pursuing those and were going to see what happens, which one drops first.
Whichever one is the one that can kind of go ahead early next year.
Thatll be the one I work on.
Are they action oriented?
Yeah, they are.
Theres action beats in them.
One of them is definitely action.
The other one has got a lot of action beats in it as well.
But yeah, whether its martial arts or not I dont know.
The Raid 2is in theaters now.
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