Patrick Hughes Talks Raid Remake, EX3…

A great interview is online with The Raid remake and Expendables 3 director Patrick Hughes, full of interesting anecdotes and trivia.  Some nice EX3 extracts:

What was it like working with Mel Gibson, who plays the lead villain of the film?

It was awesome. That was one of the beautiful parts of the process was to see what each actor – y’know because they all come from a different approach, a different style, and a different training back ground and someone like Mel is classically trained. And you see the different approaches and different styles and I remember the first day we shot with Mel we had to shoot a big dialogue scene between him and Barney [Stallone’s character] and we were rehearsing it and we were getting it down and as soon as we rolled the cameras and Mel was getting in the zone and when he lifted his gaze and locked eyes with Barney I said “Woah, threre’s the movie star.” It was this moment where it was like “Holy Shit, that’s why he’s a movie star.”

This was funny actually, I’ve got to tell you this story, you’ll love it. I love joking around on set, y’know, it’s not brain surgery, but at the same time it’s a very stressful environment and you’ve got to get through a lot so you try to have a good time and a laugh and Sly’s the same. I think Mel had come in and it was quite late and Sly and I were always throwing abuses at each other just for the fun of it. And, because it was Mel’s first day on set, I asked Sly like three times, Sly could you just push in [towards Gibson]. I was watching the performance and I go back in there and I was like, “Sly, just with that delivery don’t forget I want you to just lean forward a little bit” and Sly goes “You say that once more and I’m gonna fuckin’ beat you over the face with the butt of my fuckin’ gun.” [laughs] He said that in front of Mel and Mel’s sitting right there and Mel looked at him and then looked at me like “Oh my God, is this how he’s talking to the director?” And then I said “Mel, relax he’s joking.” I just realized at that point that Mel witnessed the most volatile actor hurling abuses at his director. I think my response was like “Sly, why don’t you get the fuck out of her or I’ll punch you.” Anyway, that was some funny shit.

There was a photo of Mel Gibson leaving the gym just after he was announced as being cast in the film and he looked absolutely pumped. Was that something he did for the film?

I think he’s going through a health and fitness phase and he’s just training hard regardless. His training routine was enough to make me feel exhausted. He looks amazing. He’s fitter than me.  Yeah, you know, that’s just the payback you get when you hit the gym 5 days a week, which he does.

It was recently announced that you’d be directing THE RAID remake. What can you tell us about that?

It’s a really exciting project. Actually, I had the pleasure of catching up with Gareth [Evans, director of the original film] the other night in L.A., who’s EP [Executive Producer] on it. This one is a little more broader canvas. It’s a very different film, very different style of filmmaking. It centers around a DEA FAST (Foreign-Deployed Advisory and Support Team) Team that was formed during the Bush administration when the crossover between terrorism and the narcotics trade were so closely intertwined that they created a task force – I believe there are six teams that operate – they’re sort of like Navy SEALS but they operate in the world of narcotics. And, these teams work across borders so it centers around a team that goes across the border and, y’know, all hell breaks loose.

One thing that blew me away with THE RAID, along with everyone else, was – you know, what was phenomenal – it wasn’t cut up, y’know. You could clearly tell that there weren’t stunt doubles involved because you weren’t cutting around the action, it was done in “oners” and that comes down to rigorous training and having incredible fight choreography play out. We’re just in the middle of casting right now.

You can check out the full interview by clicking here.