Titan to Produce Comic Books Based on Balls-to-the-Wall Indonesian Film, "The Raid"

TITAN SECURES LICENSE TO PUBLISH THE RAID COMICS.
Publisher teams up with director Gareth Evans to make all-new comics based on the popular martial-arts blockbuster.

Titan Comics are thrilled to announce that The Raid is punching its way into comic books, in late 2016. Titan is working closely with the director Gareth Evans (The Raid, The Raid 2) and XYZ Films to develop all-new stories featuring characters from the series.

Premiering in 2011, Indonesian martial-arts movie The Raid (also known as The Raid: Redemption) sent pulses racing at the Toronto International Film Festival and secured unanimous critical praise, rocketing to cult film status across the world.

The movie captured audiences with its boundary-pushing, inventive choreography and piston-pumping narrative where a lone, isolated SWAT team are trapped by a ruthless mobster and his army of killers and thugs inside a tenement block, and they have to fight through to the top.

Directed by Gareth Evans and produced by PT. Merantau Films and XYZ Films, the high-octane franchise has garnered great success since its release. The first film had 10 nominations at the 2012 Maya Awards. It was followed, in 2014, by The Raid 2, which featured the character of Rama returning to battle against corruption in his own police force.

“At Titan we’re thrilled to be publishing The Raid comic books,” said editor Martin Eden. “Gareth is a visionary and a huge talent. It’s a pleasure to work with him on developing his characters for the comic book page. We promise to deliver the same thrilling, fifth-gear adrenaline that fans have come to expect from the franchise.”

Titan’s The Raid comics are set to debut soon. Look out for more announcements about the creative team shortly.

To keep up to date with news about Titan’s The Raid comics follow Titan Comics on Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr


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2014 Florida Film Critics Circle Award Nominations - Complete List

The Florida Film Critics Circle (FFCC) was founded in 1996 is comprised of writers from various state-based publications.

The Florida Film Critics Circle Award (FFCC) nominations were announced on December 16, 2014.

2014 Florida Film Critics Circle nominees:

BEST PICTURE
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel

BEST ACTOR
Jake Gyllenhaal – Nightcrawler
Michael Keaton – Birdman
Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything

BEST ACTRESS
Julianne Moore – Still Alice
Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl
Reese Witherspoon – Wild

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Edward Norton – Birdman
Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher
J.K. Simmons – Whiplash

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Patricia Arquette – Boyhood
Jessica Chastain – A Most Violent Year
Emma Stone – Birdman

BEST ENSEMBLE
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel

BEST DIRECTOR
Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu – Birdman
Richard Linklater – Boyhood

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Birdman
Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Gone Girl
Inherent Vice
The Theory of Everything

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Interstellar

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Guardians of the Galaxy
Interstellar

BEST ART DIRECTION/PRODUCTION DESIGN
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Interstellar
Into the Woods

BEST SCORE
Gone Girl
Interstellar
Under the Skin

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Citizenfour
Life Itself
Jodorowsky’s Dune

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
Ida (Poland)
Force Majeure (Sweden)
The Raid 2 (Indonesia)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Big Hero 6
How to Train Your Dragon 2
The Lego Movie

PAULINE KAEL BREAKOUT AWARD
Jennifer Kent – The Babadook
Damien Chazelle – Whiplash
Gugu Mbatha-Raw – Belle/Beyond the Lights

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Review: "The Raid: Redemption" Simply Terrific

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 14 (of 2013) by Leroy Douresseaux


The Raid: Redemption (2011)
Serbuan maut – original title
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Indonesia; Language: Indonesian
Running time: 101 minutes (1 hour, 41 minutes)
Not rated by the MPAA
EDITOR/WRITER/DIRECTOR: Gareth Huw Evans
PRODUCER: Ario Sagantoro
CINEMATOGRAPHERS: Matt Flannery (D.o.P.) and Dimas Imam Subhono (D.o.P.)
COMPOSERS: Aria Prayogi and Fajar Yuskemal (Indonesian version); Mike Shinoda and Joseph Trapanese (U.S. release)

ACTION/CRIME/MARTIAL ARTS

Starring: Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, Doni Alamsyah, Yayan Ruhian, Pierre Gruno, Ray Sahetapy, Tegar Satrya, Iang Darmawan, Eka “Piranha” Rahmadia, and Verdi Solaiman

The Raid: Redemption is a 2011 Indonesian martial arts and crime film from director Gareth Evans. The film, which was released in the United States in 2012, showcases “pencak silat,” the traditional Indonesian martial arts. The Raid: Redemption stars Iko Uwais as a member of a SWAT team trapped in a notorious tenement building and forced to fight off ruthless criminals.

Rama (Iko Uwais) is a rookie cop and expectant father. The morning that the film begins, he joins a unit of Detachment 88 (kind of the Indonesian equivalent of an American SWAT team) as it prepares to raid one of Jakarta, Indonesia’s most notorious apartment blocks. Led by Sergeant Jaka (Joe Taslim) and Lieutenant Wahyu (Pierre Gruno), Rama and the other officers infiltrate the building in order to capture Tama Riyadi (Ray Sahetapy), a legendary mobster. But the team soon finds itself trapped in the building and forced to fight its way out. Tama’s right-hand men, Andi (Doni Alamsyah) and Mad Dog (Yayan Ruhian), lead an army of killers and thugs ready and willing to claim the bounty Tama has placed on the cops.

On the surface, The Raid: Redemption seems like a “no frills” film, but the breathtaking pencak silat brawls, duels, fights, etc are a celebration of the cinematic ballet that martial arts can be in film. This is bone-crunching frills, a kind of body-smashing version of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’s exquisite martial arts duels and clashes.

The Raid: Redemption is also the kind of movie that is especially the work of the director, film editor, and fight choreographer(s). Gareth Evans is editor and director, and actors, Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian, designed the fight choreography. For all the fights there are, one doesn’t resemble the other. Each fight is its own thrilling thing. It helps that Mike Shinoda and Joseph Trapanese’s musical score for the U.S. release heightens the sense of impending doom and nerve-wracking action; this is a score worth owning.

Evans manages to make a tense cop thriller full of action, without the movie turning into the ridiculous thrill machine that many Hollywood action films are. Evan also gets a number of good performances from his cast. Few gun-toting movie thugs and street-level cops are as interesting as the ones in The Raid: Redemption. Because the performances successfully construct the characters, you hate to see many of them blown away.

Sometimes, I am reluctant to recommend even movies that I really like, but I heartily recommend The Raid: Redemption. If you don’t want to read subtitles, the DVD has an English dub, so don’t use a foreign language as a reason not to see one of the best action movies in a long, long time.

9 of 10
A+

NOTES:
2013 Image Awards: 1 nomination: “Outstanding International Motion Picture”

Friday, February 22, 2013