Indonesia Action Star Iko Uwais Goes Behind the Camera

Indonesian star Iko Uwais, beloved by international action aficionados for his brutal and balletic work in Gareth Evans’ The Raid: Redemption and later performances in the Expendables and Skyline franchises, is stepping behind the camera as a producer and director. In late January, the action hero unveiled his new namesake Jakarta-based production banner, Uwais Pictures. Gersh is shopping the startup outfit’s first pair of action vehicles, both fully shot and nearly finished, to international buyers at Berlin’s European Film Market this week.

Since exploding onto the scene in the early 2010s with his fully formed silat martial arts mastery, Uwais has gone on to appear in productions across the world, including Snake Eyes, Stuber, Star Wars: The Force Awakens and the Netflix series Wu Assassins, for which he also served as lead fight choreographer and executive producer.

Uwais Pictures’ starting slate features the action star’s directorial debut, Temur, a military action flick that re-creates Indonesia’s real-life Mapenduma hostage crisis incident from 1996. Additional details are being kept under wraps, aside from the fact that Uwais also stars in the film as a special forces agent. The startup studio’s second project is Ikatan Darah, another local-language action flick, this one directed by Sidharta Tata and starring Livi Ciananta as a former martial arts athlete who is forced to face off against a network of ruthless loan sharks after her younger brother accumulates online gambling debts, threatening their family’s safety. Both titles are produced by Ryan Santoso, who will also run Uwais Pictures’ day-to-day business operations as its founding CEO, while Uwais holds the position of chairman.

Ahead of EFM, which includes some hot titles, The Hollywood Reporter connected with Uwais and Santoso to discuss the vision for their new company and the state of Indonesian action cinema.

What inspired you to set up Uwais Pictures, and what’s the opportunity you are targeting?

IKO UWAIS: Well, it’s a dream come true for me. In recent years, whenever we have been hired to do an action movie for another studio, even when it turns out well, I haven’t been 100 percent satisfied. Because there are always some constraints or limitations put on us. There were times when I struggled with what the mission and vision of the project was. So, for over five years, Ryan and I have been talking about what it would be like to set up our own company, where we can make whatever we want. The idea is to make really serious action movies with our own team, in our own country and in our own way.

RYAN SANTOSO: The goal is to create films that will be a breakthrough for the action genre in Indonesia. And we also want to excite the world by showing that there are still exciting action films coming out of Asia. Just like Iko and Gareth Evans did back in the day with The Raid, we want to show that there’s something really fresh happening here in Indonesia.

In terms of business strategy, is the idea to first target the Indonesian theatrical box office and then whatever international sales you achieve will be like a bonus? How are you positioning the films and their budgets?

SANTOSO: Yes, exactly. Our strategy is to focus on the domestic box office first, but when we say “domestic” in Indonesia, we actually mean Malaysia, too, because the Malaysian audience has the same tastes as Indonesians and our markets are very linked. Whatever does well in Indonesia usually does well in Malaysia. So the target is to recoup our investment and hopefully make a profit in Indonesia and Malaysia. International is very important to us, but it’s more of a prestige thing. We want the work to be seen by the world and to have a global impact. The dream is to get the films in cinemas around the world, but we’re also talking to the streaming services.

What trends in the Indonesian film market made this feel like the right time to launch a new production banner?

SANTOSO: Well, the movie industry in Indonesia has been growing so much, right? Last year, theatrical admissions were up 10 percent and Indonesian films took 65 percent of the box office. We have more cinemas in operation than ever before and more theaters continue to open up every year. And the growing audience is really hungry for local Indonesian content. So it felt like a great time to jump into the market as a production house making Indonesian action films. If we have a problem, it’s hiring enough good crew, because so many more Indonesian films are being made right now, there are not enough experienced people to meet the demand.

Tell us more about these first two films on your slate and how they represent the company’s creative vision.

UWAIS: What excites me is that they are both Indonesian action films, but they have completely different flavors. Our first movie is called Ikatan Darah, which translates to “blood ties.” It’s directed by Sidharta Tata. He’s done action, horror and TV series here in Indonesia, and I really like his style. He brings epic ideas and always has something smart going on in his genre films. This one has a comic-book action feel. It features a female martial arts hero, which we are really excited about. This isn’t something we have seen much before in Indonesian action cinema. We’re not talking about it too much publicly yet, but the actress, Livi Ciananta, does really amazing work. We think it’s going to have a big impact on the audience in Indonesia and overseas.

The other film is called Timur and it’s my directorial debut. It’s action, but it has a completely different tone and feel. This is based on a real military incident in Indonesia, the Mapendumayang hostage rescue operation that took place in 1996. In this incident, 11 scientific researchers, including a few Westerners, were taken hostage [by the Free Papua Movement] in a mountainous eastern part of the country. Our current president was a special forces general at the time and he led the operation that rescued the hostages. The film tells that story. I also star as a special forces fighter. This one is a gritty military action project.

SANTOSO I’m really excited for the world to see what Iko can do as a director. He put so much of himself into Timur. I think it’s one of his best performances and he also directed it.

UWAIS: Ryan’s just trying to kiss my ass now.

SANTOSO: (laughs) And as he said, these two films are completely different, even though they are both Indonesian action flicks. So I think it also shows what we can do as a company and as a country.

You’re launching with two films that are nearly finished. Is that going to be your target output per year?

SANTOSO: Yeah, at least two per year sounds right. We could do as many as five, but more than that would stretch us thin. We’re focused on quality, and action movies are not cheap. Compared to comedy, horror and drama, the action genre requires real investment. We’re also looking at co-productions. We’ve gotten some interesting calls from production houses in Canada, the U.S., India and China. We already have some very good co-production titles in the works, one with a Chinese company and another with an Indian company, so hopefully we can move forward with those in 2025.

What was it like stepping behind the camera to direct for the first time, Iko?

UWAIS: Honestly, I found directing really challenging. You know, you have to have a completely different mindset when you are performing as an actor and doing the job of a director. It’s really difficult to go from keeping track of all the production details and story things that you need to keep track of when you’re directing, to suddenly getting into the emotional and physical work of being an actor. It was tough, man! But I’m really happy with the film. We’re nearly finished with it and I feel like my team finally got to make the film we wanted to make.

Before you got started on this directorial debut, did you happen to reach out to your old friend Gareth Evans for any tips?

UWAIS: Oh, Gareth is like a big brother to me. We text on WhatsApp all the time. Before we started shooting Timur, he came to visit us in Indonesia and we just hung out and I told him about my plans for the project and he was really supportive. When he saw the news that I had launched this company, he reached out right away to congratulate me. So, I have the biggest hopes that we’re going to work together again one day.

When you mentioned how you felt constrained on many of your earlier projects, did you mean in terms of what you were able to achieve with the action choreography, or in other ways?

UWAIS: I know a lot of people will be expecting some really brutal action from my directorial debut — like heads and hands getting cut off. (Laughs.) But no, I didn’t mean I felt limited in the action in the past. It’s more about how the action connects to the emotions. This is something I really worked hard on with Timur. I also want to show the spirit of martial arts more in my films. Fighting isn’t what it’s all about. It’s about defending yourself and having wisdom. It’s not just the brutality but also the humanism.