Gareth, a Welsh-born writer/director, has always been a big fan of movies, especially action movies. In 2003, he directed a short film, “Samurai Monogatari”, that told the tale of Samurai waiting to be executed. The short was in Japanese and starred students from Tokyo, studying at Cardiff University at the time.
In 2003 Gareth, graduated with an MA in Scriptwriting for Film and Television at the University of Glamorgan, but it was not until 2006 that he would see his first feature production—the self-penned feature FOOTSTEPS. In 2006, the film premiered at the Swansea Bay Film Festival where it was awarded the prize for “Best Film”.
In 2007, Gareth directed a documentary for Christine Hakim Films in Indonesia entitled THE MYSTIC ART OF INDONESIA. The documentary is one of a five-episode series covering the cultural heritage of Indonesia, and is expected to broadcast once the series is complete, in 2008. Gareth’s debut feature film in 2009, MERANTAU (Merantau Warrior), introduced Indonesian action stars Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian. Gareth’s fascination with Pencak Silat and West Sumatra’s culture inspired him to write, edit and direct the debut film. At the end of 2009, Gareth wrote another action drama script, BERANDAL. Merantau searched for investors and sponsors to fund this new script, but due to high budget and complex technical requirement for the action scenes, the company struggled to find funding in time. Meanwhile, Gareth started writing another script with a much lower budget in mind, and more flexible and controlled action scenes. The script was finished fairly quickly and called INSIDE. The film was produced in 2010, and in March 2011, it was simultaneously released in the US and Indonesia with a new title, THE RAID: REDEMPTION. The film was a global success, being named “the best action movie in this decade”. After seeing the success of THE RAID, Gareth thought if it was possible to create BERANDAL as the sequel to THE RAID. Evans spent some time to adapt BERANDAL to continue where THE RAID left off. In the revised BERANDAL script, the main character’s motivation was changed and turned into the main role of Rama, an undercover cop. By giving a new identity and role for Rama as an undercover cop, the script gained a new thrill element (compared to the original script which Gareth thought it work out much better). Also, in the new script, he added an action scene which takes place in a taxi – this was inspired by a true story that Gareth heard from a friend of his when he was polishing the new script. The new script was completed by the mid-end of 2012 and pre-production started straight after. The principal photography began on January 20th, 2013, and the production wrapped up in the first week of August 2013.