Havoc director Gareth Evans: ‘I’ve always been a disciple of the John Woo school of film-making’

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Gareth Evans and I are hunched over my iPhone in a swish Soho hotel. I have a blurry photo, taken 13 years ago, of him receiving an award from Dublin Film Critics Circle. “I’ve still got it,” he says. The director, an endlessly amiable Welshman, was then still reeling from the unexpected success of his third feature. The Raid, an absurdly kinetic action film shot and set in Indonesia, enjoyed an uproarious reception at Toronto International Film Festival in 2011 before going on to raves everywhere (and an award from us). “I was totally underprepared,” he says, still staggered. “We...