Raid sequel sells strongly

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Production News

Distributors worldwide have snapped up rights to a sequel of The Raid Serbuan maut (2011), the Indonesian action thriller that played strongly at festivals last autumn.

The sequel, The Raid 2: Berandal, will again be directed by Indonesia-based British director Gareth Huw EVANS and produced through PT Merantau Films and US-based XYZ Films, with France's Celluloid Nightmares handling international sales.

Early sales largely see buyers of The Raid exercising their rights to acquire the sequel. The new film was pre-sold to Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (SPWA) for the US, Latin America and Spain; to Alliance/Momentum for the UK and Canada; Koch Media for Germany, Korea Screen for South Korea and HGC for China.

Sony Pictures Classics will release The Raid in the US on 23 March. Sony's affiliate Screen Gems is also developing an English-language remake of The Raid with XYZ.

Evans is reported to be planning a 100 day shoot for Berandal and to give it a significantly higher budget.

Berandal was previously presented at the 2010 Network of Asian Fantastic Films (NAFF) 아시아 판타스틱 제작네트워크 project market in Korea and was initially meant to be Evans' next film after his debut Merantau. But when it proved too complex to set up on schedule producers shifted to The Raid instead. And with The Raid succeeding the way it did, Berandal has now been re-engineered to become a sequel.

The basic story remains largely the same as the 2010 NAFF pitch, but the lead character is now Iko UWAIS' character from The Raid and there are strong prison and revenge elements.

Sales in other territories will begin next week at the European Film Market in Berlin.

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