Home Entertainment PREDATOR will be scary, wondrous and funny says Shane Black

PREDATOR will be scary, wondrous and funny says Shane Black

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The last time a Predator popped up on the big screen, it was back in a 2010 film that saw some serious fan wish-fulfilment: Eric Foreman from That 70’s Show being murdered by an intergalactic space-hunter in the most vicious way possible. Since then, the franchise has been run through the lowest levels of development hell as Hollywood had no idea what to do with the series following that reboot.

But in a new re-reboot, writer/director Shane Black (The Nice Guys, Lethal Weapon, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) is teaming up with writer Fred Dekker (Monster Squad, Ricochet) to take a new stab at the hunting enthusiast species, with an attempt to return Predator back to its roots. So when does the actual film start shooting? Pretty soon actually, as casting is underway with an eye towards a 2017 start on production. “Right now we’re looking at probably beginning to mid February,” Black said to Collider.

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I’m heading up to Vancouver in a week or two to go into a serious pre-production, so we’re on the cusp.

Predator movies have usually been a blend of sci-fi and horror, but Black wants to bring something else to the table with this latest sequel: An actual sense of wonder. “I think the Predator movies have slightly veered from typical sci-fi in that there is a sort of thriller aspect to them,” Black explained.

I think it should be scary, I think it should be funny, and I think ultimately it should be wondrous and about perceiving things that human beings very seldom get a chance to see… I don’t mean movie audiences I mean characters in the movie. I’m not saying the movie will be nothing anyone’s seen before.

But a Predator is only as good as his prey. And this time, the new blood will have a few similarities with the original team of CIA commandos (which Black himself was actually a part of in a small role) who met a horrible death in 1987:

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I think it’ll be interesting to get a group of credible guys—the hallmark of the first one is you have guys together that are kinda funny and self-referential and also very tough. I don’t know that we’re going to deviate over much from that, but there are at least a couple of factors that we’ve deliberately chosen to make it not just that group of buff, tough guys.

And don’t expect this version of Predator to be watered down. Thanks to the success of Deadpool, FOX is more than happy to allow their franchises to shed some blood again. And you can expect plenty of crimson in this sequel:

Fox has been very cooperative. I mean part of it is the success they had with Deadpool, but I also made a case—and I think they agreed—that fans of the Predator generally, probably aren’t looking to go to see a PG-13-rated version of it. It would be more of a letdown if it was sort of tailored to a family friendly audience than if it were allowed to play out to the same scale and level that the first R-rated one did.

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I really really like what I’m hearing so far. Black sounds like he knows exactly what kind of Predator movie to make, even if it does have a slightly pornographic teaser poster out right now ahead of its scheduled release date of February 9 in 2018.

Last Updated: October 26, 2016

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