New movie about legendary Indonesian hero Wiro Sableng being co-produced by Fox International Studios

Indonesians may flock to films about American superheroes like Spider-man and the Avengers, but there’s a special love for our homegrown action heroes, especially the martial arts master known as WIro Sableng.

Created in 1967 by author Bastian Tito, Wiro starred in a long-running series of novels and has his tales adapted to TV and film numerous times before. But it looks like the 212 Warrior is finally going to get the big screen blockbuster action movie adaptation all of his fans have been hoping for with the announcement that Fox International Studios (FIP) will be co-producing a movie about him with Indonesian producer Lifelike Pictures.

Although LIkelike had announced work on the project back in 2015, the news that FIP, a division of Hollywood giant 20th Century Fox, would be teaming up on the production is a strong sign that this movie is truly going to kick as much ass as it should.

“FIP is honored to be the first Hollywood studio to co-produce a movie with an Indonesian partner and look forward to many future collaborations,” FIP president Tomas Jegeus as quoted by Screendaily.

The two companies are planning to produce and distribute the film to Indonesia, but with FIP’s backing there’s a strong chance that the adventures of WIro will hit the screens of other countries as well. The official Indonesian title will be “Wiro Sableng 212” while the English title of the film will be “212 Warrior”.

The legendary master of pencak silat is often referred to as Wiro Sableng 212 due to the number 212 being tattooed on his chest. Known for his “crazy” personality that caused his opponents to underestimate him throughout the epic series of 185 novels that detailed his adventures, Wiro battled his enemies using a deadly ax and incredible supernatural powers he gained over years of training.

Interestingly enough, actor Vino G Bastian, the son of Wiro’s creator Bastian Tito, will be playing the hero in the new film. The cast will also feature Marsha Timothy and Sherina Munaf. Angga D Sasongko, who directed 2015’s “Filosofi Kopi”, is set to helm. 

Most exciting for us is the news that real-life silat master and action hero Yayan Ruhian, who played memorable villains in both “The Raid” and “The Raid 2”, will be doing the fight choreography for the new film. Which hopefully means the fight scenes will be more like this…

… than this.

But, either way, we’ll just be happy to see a big-budget version of one of Indonesia’s most badass heroes hit the silver screen. It would be fantastic if the rest of the world could get to know him too.



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