Back to Silat Roots
Long before making The Raid, Gareth Evans was working on a documentary about Silat — a style of martial arts from Indonesia. While making the documentary, he came upon a skilled practitioner of the art. This practitioner was Iko Uwais. The two had struck up a friendship and they both would forgo the documentary to instead make the film Merantau, which put them on the map for martial arts movies. Merantau would lead straight into The Raid and both their careers would skyrocket.
According to Variety, Uwais has now signed on for a new action film in his native Indonesia that takes him back to the roots of Silat. This new film is titled Warrior. Per Variety, “The film follows a former elite Silat practitioner who walks out of prison determined to leave his violent past behind – a resolution that quickly unravels when a Malaysian crime syndicate moves into his neighborhood, seizing control of local streets and going after the people he cares about. Drawn back into the world he tried to escape, he finds himself the sole obstacle between the syndicate and the community it wants to control. The conflict spirals from street-level intimidation into full-scale warfare, played out across Jakarta’s markets, back alleys and rooftops.”
The movie is set to be directed by John Radel. This would be Radel’s first feature as a director after working as a cinematographer and producer on productions in both Asia and Hollywood, which include Monkey Man, starring Dev Patel and Michael Mann’s Blackhat. Radel has already had a working relationship with Uwais over four previous films as both a DP and producer. He is also attached to the forthcoming action feature Warpath, which stars Uwais and Scott Adkins.
Uwais Pictures
It was recently reported that Iko Uwais, of The Raid, was unveiling the start of his own production company — Uwais Pictures. The launch of his production company will naturally be emphasizing action films for its slate, and the studio is already hitting the ground running with two movies that had gone for sale at the European Film Market in Berlin a few months back — Timur and Ikatan Darah. His intention with Uwais Pictures is to replicate the success of his modestly budgeted, local-language hit films such as The Raid, The Raid 2, and The Night Comes for Us.
