'The Raid' remake to feature DEA task force

Patrick Hughes, who's helming August's "The Expendables 3," has outlined some of the changes coming to his remake of hit Indonesian action film "The Raid."

"The thing that blew my mind with that film was the aesthetics and the fight sequences but also the simplicity of the premise, and there's so much you can do with that," Hughes told ComingSoon.

"If anything, what I want to do is elevate the emotional aspect of it. I think those are my favorite action films of all time, when you can balance the action and the emotion, and what [Gareth Evans] did with his first 'Raid' was phenomenal."

"Certainly, we're not there to recreate that film beat for beat," Hughes admitted, following a change in theme for the in-production remake.

"We're following a DEA task team, which was implemented by the Bush administration after September 11th when they realized that terrorism and the drug trade were so closely aligned."

And the cross-border nature of a DEA task force means that Hughes is expecting a more apparent mix of cultures and of fighting styles. "That's going to be a lot of fun," he anticipated.

So how did this relatively unknown director get two high-profile gigs in such quick succession?

The director credits the success of self-financed Australian western "Red Hill" with propelling him into the big leagues.

"We were the fastest selling film at Berlin Film Festival that year and after the world premiere screening. I think we sold every territory in the world within four hours or something," he told Collider.

"I got a call from my agent and he said, 'Just so you know, this is completely left field, Sly is a huge fan of "Red Hill,"'" Hughes recalled. Pleased as he was with the commendation, he didn't dwell on it, getting right on with a commercial project in Mumbai when his agent got in touch again.

"He said, 'Just so you know, Sly wants to talk to you about "Expendables 3."' So I flew over that weekend."

And Sony was clearly impressed with his work on "The Expendables 3," offering him "The Raid" soon after.