Premiering on Hulu beginning August 5th is the new prequel to the ‘Predator’ franchise entitled ‘Prey.’
Directed by Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane), the new movie takes place in the Comanche Nation in 1719 and follows a fierce and highly skilled warrior named Naru (Amber Midthunder) as she learns that the prey she is stalking is actually a highly evolved alien with a technologically advanced arsenal.
Moviefone recently had the pleasure of speaking with Amber Midthunder about her work on ‘Prey,’ making a ‘Predator’ movie, her character, training for the role, and working with Coco the dog.
You can read our full interview below or click on the video player above to watch our interviews with Amber Midthunder, Dakota Beavers, director Dan Trachtenberg, and producer Jhane Myers.
Moviefone: To begin with, ‘Prey’ is different than any of the previously released films in the franchise. Did it feel like you were making a ‘Predator’ movie when you were shooting ‘Prey?’
Amber Midthunder: I feel like I shot at least three different movies through the course of shooting this one movie. It would every so often occur to me that this was a ‘Predator’ movie, but honestly it was really hard to wrap my brain around. I kept trying to be like, “This is a ‘Predator’ movie?”
Sometimes I would even be looking at the Predator and I’d be like, “Oh, this is crazy.” But crazy in a good way because I feel like there’s just so much that we packed in there, there was always something to be stimulated by.
MF: Can you talk about Naru’s relationship with her brother Taabe, and how their rivalry really sets her off on her journey?
AM: I think Naru is surrounded by people who tell her that she can’t be what she wants to be, which is a hunter. Taabe is somebody who kind of walks on both sides, he’ll both encourage her, but then also kind of put her back into the same place that everybody else puts her in.
So, I feel like that’s kind of her one person who believes in her sometimes, but then also to have that be such shaky ground, I think is more a fuel to her fire. I think whoever tells her no, she’s going to want to say yes, whether that’s Taabe, her mom or some random person. I think she’s definitely dead set to go for what she wants.
MF: Can you talk about how you prepared for the action sequences in the movie, and what is it like fighting a Predator on screen?
AM: We did a four-week training camp before we started shooting in Canada, so we got there early. I mean, personal training, weapons, specifically as accurate to Comanche fighting style as we possibly could. We developed a sign language, but when you get there, there’s this element of life that happens when you start shooting that you just can’t predict. So, I’m glad that we were able to set that, but there’s also just stuff that I think ends up happening when you’re there and it all just kind of culminates together.
MF: Finally, Naru’s dog has a big role in the film. Was the dog a good actor?
AM: That dog was chaos. But I love her with all my heart and soul. Her name is Coco in real life. Her name is Sarii in the movie. I will say, Sarii and Coco have very different personalities. Because Coco was adopted two months before we started shooting. She is not a movie dog that got trained for years like normal.
She was the breed that they found to be most accurate for this time period and this location, so they ended up getting her and training her for the movie. But she also happened to be the highest energy dog you will ever meet in your life. So, most Coco days were spent with somebody yelling, “Coco!” It was a lot of me being like, “I’m ready.” She would be there and be like, “All right, let’s go. Let’s shoot.” Then she would run off and you’d be like, “All right, I guess we’re done.”
If even the genre-steeped likes of Robert Rodriguez (producer of ‘Predators’) and Shane Black (who was in the original 1987 ‘Predator’ and wrote/directed 2018 misfire ‘The Predator’) can’t crack a great movie set within the alien hunter franchise, what hope does anyone else have?
That question will hopefully be answered in positive fashion by ’10 Cloverfield Lane’ director Dan Trachtenberg, who is behind a bold new take on the ‘Predator’ mythos. He’s aiming for more success by turning back the clock and making a prequel movie, which has a new trailer online.
‘Prey’, set 300 years ago, is the story of a young woman, Naru (Amber Midthunder), a fierce and highly skilled warrior. She has been raised in the shadow of some of the most legendary hunters who roam the Great Plains, so when danger threatens her camp, she sets out to protect her people. The prey she stalks, and ultimately confronts, turns out to be a highly evolved alien predator with a technologically advanced arsenal, resulting in a vicious and terrifying showdown between the two adversaries.
The Comanche Nation is a Native American tribe today headquartered in Oklahoma, having migrated through Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, and Texas. Trachtenberg and his team have stated their intent to present a respectful portrayal of the Comanche people in ‘Prey’. “The filmmakers were committed to creating a film that provides an accurate portrayal of the Comanche and brings a level of authenticity that rings true to its Indigenous peoples,” says a statement.
Producer Jhane Myers, an acclaimed filmmaker, Sundance Fellow, and member of the Comanche nation herself, is known for her attention and dedication to films surrounding the Comanche and Blackfeet nations and her passion for honoring the legacies of the Native communities.
Writer Patrick Aison, who developed the movie with Trachtenberg, has written for shows including ‘Treadstone’ and ‘Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan’, while Trachtenberg broke out in the short film field and TV commercial space. Since directing the most successful ‘Cloverfield’ spin-off, he’s mostly been making episodes of TV including ‘Black Mirror’ and ‘The Boys’.
“It was very tricky to find a way to have the Predator feel, at once, 300 years earlier in iteration and in what it has to wield, but also feel still feel far more advanced than what our characters are used to and have ever dealt with before,” Trachtenberg told Collider. “That way, it really can feel like this David and Goliath grudge match unfolding. That was challenging. Some things in the trailer are teased, and I’m excited for people to watch some familiar gadgets and some familiar weapons in the arsenal, but also a lot of new things that I think are super cool and that I hope people will enjoy.”
‘Prey’ is targeting an August 5th release via Hulu.
The ‘Predator’ franchise has seen a lot of ups and downs in its time – the 1987 original (which saw Arnold Schwarzenegger’s mercenary go up against an alien creature who arrives on Earth with some time to kill) remains a classic.
Since then, the movie series has never quite soared to the same heights. The first sequel couldn’t recapture the bloody intensity, ‘Predators’ came close, while even Shane Black (who appeared in the first film) struggled with ‘The Predator’. The less said about the ‘Alien vs. Predator’ spin-offs, the better.
Hopes are high, yet nervous, then, for the latest attempt to bring the stalking extraterrestrials to screens. This one comes courtesy of ’10 Cloverfield Lane’ director Dan Trachtenberg who, along with writer Patrick Aison, has developed a prequel that spins the clock back long into the past for the first actual encounter between humans and Predators.
‘Prey’, set 300 years ago, is the story of a young woman, Naru (Amber Midthunder), a fierce and highly skilled warrior. She has been raised in the shadow of some of the most legendary hunters who roam the Great Plains, so when danger threatens her camp, she sets out to protect her people. The prey she stalks, and ultimately confronts, turns out to be a highly evolved alien predator with a technically advanced arsenal, resulting in a vicious and terrifying showdown between the two adversaries.
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The Comanche Nation is a Native American tribe today headquartered in Oklahoma, having migrated through Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, and Texas. Trachtenberg and his team have stated their intent to present a respectful portrayal of the Comanche people in ‘Prey’. “The filmmakers were committed to creating a film that provides an accurate portrayal of the Comanche and brings a level of authenticity that rings true to its Indigenous peoples,” says a statement. “[Producer Jhane] Myers, an acclaimed filmmaker, Sundance Fellow, and member of the Comanche nation herself, is known for her attention and dedication to films surrounding the Comanche and Blackfeet nations and her passion for honouring the legacies of the Native communities.
Aison has written for shows including ‘Treadstone’ and ‘Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan’, while Trachtenberg broke out in the short film field and TV commercial space. Since directing the most successful ‘Cloverfield’ spin-off, he’s mostly been making episodes of TV including ‘Black Mirror’ and ‘The Boys’.
This teaser actually works to make you eager to see the movie without giving much away – the tone is there, and what more do you really need to know? Hopefully future trailers will not reveal everything. After all, Predators prefer to stay hidden.
‘Prey’ represents the hope for a new way forward for the ‘Predator’ franchise and will arrive on Hulu on August 5th.
Fred Dekker is a genuine genre legend. The filmmaker behind “Night of the Creeps,” “The Monster Squad,” and a handful of the very best episodes of TV’s “Tales from the Crypt,” doesn’t have a huge filmography, but what he has contributed has left a lasting mark on an entire generation of filmmakers and fans. Which makes this new Blu-ray release of “Night of the Creeps,” from the fine folks at Shout Factory’s Scream Factory imprint, such a gift. (There’s even a limited-edition box set version with a little Tom Atkins figurine.)
The 1986 film, Dekker’s first as director, is a charming and gooey low-budget chiller about some alien space slugs that turn young people into violent zombies. (You know, that old story.) With its mixture of practical effects, bursts of drive-in-worthy sex and violence, and knowing humor, it positions itself as a perfect send-up and loving celebration of the kind of B-movies from the 1950’s that Dekker and his ilk grew up with.
In an in-depth and wide-ranging conversation, we talked about the legacy of “Night of the Creeps,” what he learned from the production and whether or not he’d want to remake any of his earlier films. Plus, we get some details on the troubled productions of “Titan A.E.” and last year’s creatively compromised “The Predator.” Dive in!
Moviefone: Are you still surprised by legacy of “Night of the Creeps?” I read an interview around the time it was released that said you wrote it in five days.
Fred Dekker: There’s a little hyperbole in those interviews. I think the first draft was probably more like three weeks. I did write one script in college in one weekend, just because I’d heard the John Landis had done it. I just wanted to see if I could do it. But that was not a script that I ever showed to anybody. I just put it in a drawer. But “Creeps” is probably three weeks for the first draft and then tinkering there-after. But I had a lot more energy and a lot more chutzpah when I was young.
As far as the legacy, you know, it’s impossible to know what the effect of what you’re doing is going to have. You can hope and you can dream. I continued to be bewildered.
TriStar Pictures
It seems like stature of the movie has grown over the years and even looking on this new Blu-ray, the big screening you had in Austin was in 2009. And it feels like the momentum is still gaining.
I mean, it definitely has a life beyond anything I could’ve imagined. I have obviously a personal relationship to the movie that is uniquely mine. I really disliked it for years and it wasn’t tied to its success or failure at the box office. I mean, it did fail although it did have a big following in Germany. All of my films have had these strange legacies. It’s like “Creeps” had a big following in Germany and I’m not sure, but I’m think that may have had something to do with Roland Emmerich casting Jason and Jill in “Ghost Chase,” which came afterwards. It makes sense to me because it’s not like they were, you know, uh, uh, Fred Astaire and ginger Rogers for anything. I love them, but they weren’t Becall and Bogie.
Other than that it didn’t really catch fire. But that doesn’t mean anything to me both in the films that I’ve made and films that I love. Some of my favorite films completely tanked and are very obscure. But I love what I love. With “Creeps,” all I saw when it was finished were the mistakes that I made. And that stuck with me for quite some time. Obviously if it had been a giant hit, my ego would have taken over and I would have said, “Of course it’s great. I knew it would be.” But it took me many years to start to appreciate the good stuff about it. The bad stuff still bugs me. There’s still a lot of wincing that I do when I see the film, but the stuff that’s good I think is better than I thought it was at the time.
Well, I mean, what was your major takeaway at the time?
I definitely learned a great deal from having made that first film because I never went to film school. They wouldn’t accept me. So I ended up making a lot of films with my buddies in college and shooting video and editing it myself. And so I definitely wasn’t a complete neophyte, but I was a little bit enamored with certain directors at the time who are still my heroes, the Spielbergs and Mike Nichols and Kubrick — all the directors who seem to have a real vision and you can spot their movies a mile away. The Coen Brothers, Michael Mann and people like that. So I was very beholden to smy vision of the movie in my head. And the problem with that is that I ended up shooting things in a particular way.
On the Blu-ray Michael [the editor] talks about the scene in the frat house where Chris and JC are pledging. And the Bradster is sort of doing a very subtle Nazi indoctrination. And I storyboarded that very meticulously and every shot is exactly as I storyboarded it, but I wasn’t paying enough attention at the time to pace. The thing that I learned from “Night of the Creeps” that went going into “Monster Squad” and anything else that I had done since then is to have a stopwatch and make sure that however long it takes to play the scene or the take, that we do a couple at different speeds and presumably faster. If you look at the Preston Sturges comedies of the forties or some of the great comic directors of those days or even Howard Hawks, where he had everybody talking over each other very quickly. I think that’s a great litmus test because people will almost never blame you if your movie goes too quickly, but they will get their noses out of joint if it’s too slow. So the lesson I learned on “Creeps” was pace. But there’s times when it takes its time and that really, really works for it. Making movies is trying to catch lightning in a bottle and it’s very, very tricky to do.
Well, has anyone ever approached you and have you had any interest in, in adapting “Night of the Creeps” for TV or doing a remake? Was that ever a possibility or something that you want to explore?
Here’s the thing. I mean, I’ve made three feature films. I directed an episode of “Tales from the Crypt.” And that is the oeuvre that I have; that’s kind of my entire filmography. And that’s not by choice, by any stretch of the imagination. If any of these pictures had done really, really well, if “Monster Squad” had been a hit, I already had a deal to make the next film, which was going to be the “Johnny Quest” movie. And then when “Monster Squad” tanked, obviously the studio and I don’t blame them, went, “Well I don’t know.” The idea that I would go back and remake one of my three movies is, to me, just insane. Life is too short as it is.
Are you opposed to somebody else remaking them?
Absolutely I am. I’ll be completely honest, Shane Black and I have both been approached about adapting “The Monster Squad” for television. Was it my first choice? No. But I’m a big fan now of long form television. I think “Breaking Bad” was a seminal viewing experience for me that I equated with “The Godfather.” I think it’s the modern version of “The Godfather.” It just happens to be 62 hours long instead of, you know, two-and-a-half to three-hours long. So I’m a big fan of that. And figuring out a way to take “Monster Squad” and turn it into a long form series was very exciting to me. But when we were approached, it was right after “Stranger Things.”
Hollywood has, as you must know, a monkey see, monkey do a business where, Oh, well that’s successful, so let’s just rip that off. So Shane and I had a meeting at Paramount. I said, “Let me just clarify — you guys want us to do a rip off of a rip off of us?” And they all sort of laughed. But that’s basically what it came down to. And my other thought was on “The Monster Squad” was to show us the squad as they are now, because the fans that discovered the movie when they were very young, the age of the kids in the film, they may not have seen in the movie theater. They may have seen it on HBO or on video, but they grew up with it in the same way that the characters in that movie would have grown up.
I thought, well, let’s make this movie for the people who fell in love when they were kids and say, “Where is the squad as adults?” And Shane said to me, “Well that’s it.” I said, “Yeah, it’s a great idea.” And he goes, “No, that’s Stephen King‘s ‘It.’ the first part of the book and the first movie is them as kids fighting monsters and the second movie is them as adults fighting monsters.” So as a fan of the genre, there is nothing to me remotely interesting or new about “Monster Squad” as a movie or a TV show. Maybe in 10 years, maybe in 15 years. But right now it’s like, well everybody’s already doing it.
I did set up the director’s cut ending of “Night of the Creeps” as a kind of a wink. Not to say that you know, there’s going to be another one or there’s more to this story because I wouldn’t want to do one without Tom Atkins. Depending on which version of the movie you see… The movie that I disowned was the theatrical version, he is presumably dead, but not necessarily. In the director’s cut, he is definitely dead. So unless it’s a dream and he wakes up and the phone rings and he says, “Thrill me,” it’s really hard to bring him back. And I think he’s the money. I think Tom Atkins in that movie is to me half of the movie. If you took him out or put another actor in there, I just don’t think it would have any of the of the magic or the juice that it has.
And it bugs me when people make sequels to movies are freak occurrences. I’m a big fan “Die Hard 2,” but it goes down a little hard. I even like the third one, “Die Hard with a Vengeance” is terrific but “Die Hard with a Vengeance” at least acknowledges that John McClane is being chosen to run this gauntlet because of previous things he’s done. It isn’t like, “Isn’t that a coincidence that there are terrorists every f*cking places guy goes?” And the “Jaws” sequels are the same thing. So for me “Night of the Creeps” is a one shot. I don’t know what more you do with that idea that’s going to make it interesting or expanded. I wouldn’t know how to do that. That’s one I wouldn’t mind if somebody went off and said, “Hey, I want to do a sequel to this.” I would be interested to see what they came up with.
Fox
Just to touch on some of your other work, you helped on “Titan A.E.,” right? What was that experience like?
Yeah. I wasn’t gun for hire. I needed work and I was approached by Fox because I think they were fans of mine and they saw in “The Monster Squad” a slightly before its time, PG-13 family movie, where you’re edgy enough so that the teens don’t completely look down their nose on it, which is why, by the way, teens didn’t go see it. The movie was a bomb because kids couldn’t get in because it was PG-13 and teens thought it was cheesy and adults wouldn’t take their kids because they thought the kids would be scared. So it canceled out every possible audience it could have had, strangely. It was the same reason that I was brought on to do “RoboCop 3,” because they wanted to skew younger, but they wanted to skew younger in a way that wasn’t going to be looked on as cheesy, which ultimately it was much to my dismay. So that’s why Fox approached me, I think. But I was really just a gun for hire. They gave me stuff that I did not create, that my heart really wasn’t in. And to me it was kind of a no-win situation.
Fox
Can we talk about what happened with “The Predator?” We’ve seen set photos of good guy predators driving armored cars and you’ve alluded on your Facebook page to it not being the movie you and Shane wanted. Can you talk about that?
Sure. I think we were halfway through the shoot. Um, we had devised a sequence which, which I confessed was my idea, which was essentially, our heroes have to get from point A to point B and they commandeer military convoy. And at that point in the film, we had established a pair of Predator emissaries, basically good guy predators. What was interesting to Shane and I was to ask a question that nobody to give a shit about, which is, what do predators do, except for hunt? Because they’ve invented interstellar spacecraft. So they’re not stupid. They’re not just a bunch of Arkansas rednecks who come to Earth to play the most dangerous game. They actually have a civilization and a culture. And presumably that’s worth exploring since none of the other movies do it.
So our idea was that their planet is dying. And so they’ve decided to take what previously was explored, which is to dope up creatures with the DNA of other types of predators from alien worlds and create new targets for their hunt. But now they realized, well, hey, we need maybe to upgrade ourselves just to survive. And then they go to themselves, well, hey, earth is warming up. We like a warm environment. Maybe we should move in. So the premise of the movie is that in the third act was these two predators come aboard the ship and everybody’s freaking out and the predators actually want to communicate. They want to say, “Hey, we’ve got a problem, you have a problem. Maybe we should team up.”
So that whole convoy was trying to get the emissaries to the ship to get away and they were going to be chased by A, the upgrade who we meet in the finished version of the movie and B, and this was a huge change from our initial premise, is that at the beginning of the movie, you see the first Predator that shows up in the movie. He leaves the ship and we push in on this container in the, in the ship. And what they ended up with was the terrible ending that I have nothing to do with it. Shane didn’t write either. That was sort of someone decided it was a good idea.
There’s something on the ship. Well, originally there was a whole bunch of those in the ship. And what those were was those were the gestating hybrids. Essentially what they were nurturing and growing in these pods were the hybrids of Predator DNA mixed with the DNA of creatures from all over the galaxy that would enable them to basically eradicate mankind so that they could populate it themselves. And so the convoy chase, the idea was that it would be all of our heroes on these badass, big military vehicles and the upgrade releases the hybrids and chases them and the hybrids jump onto the convoy. And it’s a big, rootin’, tootin’ fantastic action sequence.
Shane storyboarded it. And we had a pre-viz and animatics and it was I think a really cool idea. At some point or another, the studio, I think, and I’m not pointing fingers at anyone in particular, but there were these misgivings that we were straying too far from what people expected the movie to be. And so we sat down and went, “I guess we need to do a hunt and it needs to be at night, so it’s scarier.” So we ended up going in that direction, which I don’t think served us because it didn’t top anything we’d seen before. I’m actually quite pleased with the first half of the movie, but it kind of goes off the rails by, and Hollywood does this all the time by, trying to appeal to everyone, you appeal to no one.
I think that the convoy chase should have been done at night to be scarier. And I argued for it, but I was just the co-writer, if I’d been a producer on the movie, they would have listened to me more. But believe it or not, that’s the short version of how it became what it is.
Fox
How close did you come to getting Arnold Schwarzenegger to come back?
I think personally, and I argued, again, I was not a producer on this movie, so I could just say things and people will all nod or shake their heads. I believe the convoy chase, had we done it and had we done it at night, would have been something that had never been seen before in a movie. Whether you think it’s a Predator movie or not is up to you. But I thought it would have been cool.
And the other thing I said is, “We have to have Arnold Schwarzenegger in this movie.” Because, like it or not, one of the master strokes of “The Force Awakens” is that ending. Because even though Luke doesn’t do anything except turn around and have a beard, it touches that little nostalgia button in you and you go, “Oh cool.” And then you go to the credits and there’s no way that movie’s not going to be a big hit. Even though there’s not a single original thing in it, all it is just “Star Wars” and “The Empire Strikes Back” combined and you switch it around a little bit and you change characters, but there’s not a single moment in that movie where I go, “Oh, that’s an interesting, cool thing.” Because I saw it all before. I love these movies so I know them pretty well. And I know when you’re showing me something from another “Star Wars” movie. Hollywood doesn’t like to do that these days. They want to just trot out. This is why there’s so many remakes that we don’t need. So they filmed that again with a worst Chucky doll? Why do we want that?
Fred called me back later that day to clarify the potential Arnold Schwarzenegger cameo at the end of the film. This is what he said:
We very much wanted him in the film but what we had written was a cameo that would have spring-boarded into a major role in any sequel. He decided it wasn’t enough of a role and nobody was willing to put money on the possibility of a sequel. He would be taking a pay cut. He would have said, “Come with me if you want to live.” Shane had a talk with Arnold but at the end of the day, the sequel wasn’t a done deal and this is really not a lot of screen time for Arnold to go and fly to Canada and do a half day.
I also asked for him to clarify what he and Shane had to do with the ending that actually made it into the movie:
We shot it. I wrote that very last line. But I wasn’t happy about it. The whole thing seemed to not be in step with that particular franchise. It was one of many ideas that we floated and shot. We shot a version where Ripley was in the cocoon and we shot one where Newt from “Aliens” was in the cocoon. Sigourney didn’t want to clear any future for Ripley in the franchise and ultimately I don’t think anybody remembers Newt well enough for that to have meant anything.
“Night of the Creeps” is now available on Blu-ray from our good friends at Shout Factory. It’s a wonderful edition and very much worth it.
The only sci-fi franchise more maligned than “Alien” may be “Predator.” At least “Alien” has two fully great installments before deteriorating; “Predator” has the classic original and an underrated, largely unrelated sequel (“Predators”), but most of the series’ post-1987 highlights are limited to the crossover films with, yep, “Alien.”
All of which is why there is so much to be excited about in “The Predator,” a movie eager to acknowledge a broader mythology of extraterrestrial hunters and the humans unlucky enough to run afoul of them, but mostly just interested in exploring an absolute banger of a premise in the in-depth and relentlessly entertaining way that it deserves. With the film shuffling into theaters soon, it felt appropriate to shut off the cloaking device that seems to be shrouding its arrival, and set the timer on a few essential reasons that are certain to explode your interest in the film like a small nuclear warhead strapped to your forearm.
1. The Premise
Fox
“A young boy (Jacob Tremblay) accidentally triggers an alert that brings the Predators back to Earth. The universe’s most lethal hunters have genetically upgraded themselves with DNA from other alien species.” This is the official plot line revealed by Fox, and showcased briefly in the film’s trailers. Especially after Tremblay survived the horrors his character dealt with in “Room,” fending off herculean aliens with advanced technology should be a piece of cake.
2. The Filmmakers
Even if that concept doesn’t sell you immediately, what makes it irresistible is the fact that it was directed by Shane Black (“The Nice Guys”) and written by Black and Fred Dekker (“Monster Squad”). These are guys who know how to deconstruct machismo, and have fun with a premise that teeters on the edge between cool and corny.
Black co-starred in the first “Predator,” so he has real bona fides with this franchise, and especially after tackling “Iron Man 3,” he seems more and more sure-footed when it comes to mounting fun, fast-paced action that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
3. The Mythology
It’s yet unclear how much of the previous films Black directly drew upon to build what has been described as a more “intimate… event-based” movie, something evoking the original “Predator” in terms of both its exciting self-containment and its whiffs of a larger universe, just outside the frame. But the casting of Jake Busey as Sean Keyes, the son of “Predator 2” character Peter Keyes, indicates that at the very least, Black respected the franchise to integrate a few Easter eggs into his story.
4. The Disgruntled Science Teacher
This is apparently how Olivia Munn’s character is described in press materials, and quite frankly, we are 100 percent here to see how that plays out against a Predator. (Knowing our high-school science teacher, that Predator better have his homework done — or else.)
5. The Really, Really Great Cast Alongside Olivia Munn
Black cast Tremblay, Munn, Travante Rhodes (“Moonlight”), Keegan Michael Key (“Keanu”), Boyd Holbrook (“Logan”), Thomas Jane (“1922”), Alfie Allen (“Game of Thrones”), and Sterling K. Brown (“Black Panther”) among several others.
It’s not just that the cast is diverse and eclectic; it’s that there’s a murderer’s row of talent on screen all at once, promising the perfect sort of alchemy for a Shane Black project — something that oozes a deeply self-aware acknowledgment of action movie archetypes and conventions, but comments on them so skillfully that it’s still fun to watch in earnest.
6. The Super Predator
Fox
I’ve gotta be honest: other than the fact that this beast is twice as big as the other Predator in the trailer and throws it around like a rag doll, I don’t know what this term means.
But given the bullying physique of that species, the series’ history with bigger and bigger adversaries for our unfortunate human protagonists and Black’s razor-sharp creativity, I’m guessing that it spells doom for a lot of secondary characters, and a lot of entertainment value for the audience.
7. The Sequels…?
There seems to be some dispute between the good folks at Fox and Black over the future of this franchise, but not long ago, producer John Davis said that he wants the filmmaker to come back and direct not one but two more movies in this cycle, further building on the world created in 1987 by Jim and John Thomas.
Black wisely was reluctant to put the cart in front of the horse, but if this film delivers, it sets the stage for — if nothing else — two more possible Shane Black movies, which is a good thing, whether they’re set in this world or not.
Is there such a thing as too muchShane Black in a Shane Black movie?
I wouldn’t have guessed it was possible — even in the late 1980s and ‘90s, when movies like the Black-scripted “The Last Boy Scout” were pilloried for being too brutal, aggressive and vulgar (and that was after “Lethal Weapon” and its sequel, the movies that made him such a hot property, were already considered wildly over the top). But “The Predator,” a combination sequel and soft reboot, feels like a throwback to that earlier, more simplistic era. The film is a hyper-masculine cocktail of breakneck storytelling, graphic violence and mean-spirited humor where the ingredients this time around seem either off or just wildly inconsistent. This is especially disappointing since it follows Black’s remarkable, measured comeback with “Iron Man 3” and “The Nice Guys.”
Simply bursting with too many ideas for what deliberately aims to be a small and self-contained story, the filmmaker’s latest is a muddled effort that never hits the highs of the (admittedly perfect) original film, though a terrific cast and more than a few clever surprises are sure to keep audiences on their toes (and on the edge of their seats).
Fox
Boyd Holbrook (“Logan”) plays Quinn McKenna, an Army sniper who encounters a sport-hunting alien while on a covert mission and absconds from the scene with a helmet and a handful of otherworldly trinkets that he inadvertently sends to his autistic son Rory (Jacob Tremblay, “Room”). Intercepted by Will Traeger (Sterling K. Brown, TV”s “This Is Us”), the head of a top secret organization investigating our extraterrestrial adversaries, McKenna is brought to a military facility and thrown in the stockade with a group of misfit soldiers while scientist Casey Brackett (Olivia Munn, “X-Men: Apocalypse”) studies the recovered materials for clues about where they came from and what they’re after.
When an alien Traeger has apprehended escapes from their lab and embarks on a killing spree, McKenna and his oddball cohorts escape during the melee to avoid further disciplinary actions — much less death at the hands of a Predator. But after realizing that the creature is heading directly for young Rory, whose behavioral issues have given him an unexpected advantage in activating the equipment, McKenna recruits his fellow prisoners to help kill it, rescue his son, and if possible collect enough evidence to present it to the world and prevent them all from becoming scapegoats for what is rapidly becoming a military mission gone wrong.
Black’s screenwriting conventions feel like traditional ones on adrenaline and “The Predator” unfolds with a lethal efficiency that both surpasses his previous efforts and undermines some of the elements that have traditionally made them work so well. There is simply an enormous amount of expository dialogue in the film, to the extent it sometimes feels like there’s nothing else, and as a result the actors feel like delivery systems for character and plot details rather than living, breathing people. Some of these characters work like gangbusters (Brown’s Traeger is cut from the same ice-cold, amoral, ruthlessly charming mold as Craig Bierko in “The Long Kiss Goodnight,” for example) while others, unfortunately including Holbrook’s McKenna, don’t leave an impression.
Fox
Holbrook, admittedly, was among the standouts in “Logan,” but teamed up with Trevante Rhodes (“Moonlight”) as a suicidal vet, and Munn as a wonderfully resourceful scientist-turned-Predator hunter, even his familial obligations to Rory don’t strike the deep dramatic impact the movie needs. At 107 minutes, the movie moves like lightning, so there are almost no moments to pause and explore these characters other than in relation to their “function” in the film. Meanwhile, folks like Keegan-Michael Key and Thomas Jane are clearly having a blast but exist on the periphery of the ensemble. They’re clearly enjoying their relative lack of responsibility but their presence only further undermines the cohesiveness of its momentum, and the consistency of its tone.
As a co-star and ghost writer on John McTiernan’s 1987 classic, Black long since established his firm grasp on the Predator universe, and he really embraces the established mythology of the creature and their technology. And all of those elements are a grisly blast: the body count is higher in this film than probably all of the others combined, including the jungle assault in the first, and the Predators (including the new Super Predator) dispatch their prey/victims with lethal efficiency. Paired with a score by Henry Jackman that liberally recreates Alan Silvestri’s iconic leitmotifs (from the jungle drums to the military-cadence Aaron Copland stuff), the action itself feels muscular and streamlined — a slightly less elegant Cliff’s Notes version of what McTiernan did some 31 years ago. But then again, with two direct and two more indirect sequels between then and now, it seems impossible to retell that story in form or content; the slow introduction of the creature in the first film gave audiences an opportunity to get to know the cast, and now it’s just trying to reinvent a Ten Little Indians scenario with new characters they want you to care about.
In which case, “The Predator” is a solid follow-up/ update that rights the franchise and diverts it from the “Alien Versus…” spinoff franchise, but it’s surprisingly not materially a much better film than “Predators,” which I probably mean more as a compliment to that underrated sequel than this one. Ultimately, one supposes that it isn’t that Black put too much of himself into this film, or somehow that a franchise stymied his voice; both challenges have paid handsome dividends for the filmmaker in the past. It’s just the proportions that are off. There’s something initially fun and undeniably cool about it (like tiny little Tremblay wearing a full-size Predator mask to go trick or treating) but it almost immediately proves unwieldy, and even bound together by fearless confidence and no small amount of elbow grease, in the end does more harm than good.
The difference between “The Predator” before and after reshoots is literally night and day.
Director Shane Black‘s sci-fi film was originally going to come out in February, before moving to August, and now opening in theaters September 14.
A few months ago, star Keegan-Michael Key told CinemaBlend they had just finished reshoots, “and just about three-quarters of the third act was rewritten.”
Collider talked to Shane Black during Comic-Con, when the filmmakers were just finalizing the VFX before the release. Collider asked about the reshoots — aka “additional photography” — wondering what Black learned from the test screenings, and what did he go back to do? Here’s Black’s explanation:
“Part of it was that we were making the film and we were trying to jam a lot into a five-pound bag. Right? So we had a big appetite, and one of the things about that was, well, if you want to do all of this stuff with this much money, you probably need to shoot during the day because during the night would be prohibitive.
And then to our chagrin — and it’s on me — when I saw the footage during the day, this is the climax of the movie, [The Predator] doesn’t look right. He doesn’t look scary in the daytime. And so, enough people agreed. And then we decided to streamline the plot so we could afford to go back up and really just concentrate on the scarier elements and doing it at night.
So literally, as they’ve said, the difference is night and day. We took everything out of day and put it into darkness.”
Sounds like a lot of time and money, but hopefully the end result was worth it. “The Predator” opens in theaters September 14.
Watch Shane Black’s full interview for more details on how he made the film, his appreciation of “The Nice Guys” fans, and revelation that he has Tourette syndrome:
Shane Black‘s “The Predator” movie could go either way. Most of the reactions to the first teaser, shared during CinemaCon, were positive. But at least one critic was “underwhelmed.” Unfortunately, you won’t get a chance to judge for yourself today.
“The Predator,” opening in theaters this September, is the fourth film in the franchise, and it’s set between “Predator 2” and “Predators.” The cast looks strong: Boyd Holbrook, Olivia Munn, Edward James Olmos, Trevante Rhodes, Keegan-Michael Key, Thomas Jane, Yvonne Strahovski, and young Jacob Tremblay.
The first synopsis for the movie was shared during 20th Century Fox’s CinemaCon presentation:
“From the outer reaches of space to the small-town streets of suburbia, the hunt comes home in Shane Black’s explosive reinvention of the Predator series. Now, the universe’s most lethal hunters are stronger, smarter and deadlier than ever before, having genetically upgraded themselves with DNA from other species. When a young boy accidentally triggers their return to Earth, only a ragtag crew of ex-soldiers and a disgruntled science teacher can prevent the end of the human race.”
In case that sounds strange to you, you’re not alone; Collider called the synopsis “bonkers.”
The first teaser trailer sounds pretty out there, too. Here are some details from IndieWire:
“The footage begins with Tremblay’s young boy on Halloween playing with a toy box that has a toy alien ship inside of it. It turns out the toy is controlling a real alien spaceship, similar to the way Anne Hathaway controlled a monster in ‘Colossal.’ The vessel ends up crash landing on Earth and releasing tons of Predators.
The trailer cuts to an interrogation room featuring Boyd Holbrook, who is playing a military sniper. It turns out Holbrook is the father of the boy we saw earlier. Footage of soldiers battling Predators and a Predator violently holding one by the neck cut through Holbrook’s integration narration. Olivia Munn’s scientist makes a big impression during the trailer. Her character is seen expertly handling a gun. When Sterling K. Brown’s character asks, ‘You’re pretty handy with a gun, where’d you learn?’ Munn replies: ‘America.’”
Here are some of the positive reactions:
Shane Black’s THE PREDATOR looks great! Lots of bloody action, the hunters are evolving. #CinemaCon
And looks like Shane Black has another winner on his hands with THE PREDATOR, whose trailer includes very funny opening scene with Jacob Tremblay before moving into familiar paramilitary territory, and Weyland-Yutani-like corporate-science shenanigans. #CinemaConpic.twitter.com/fImc3yoioM
Shane Black and Fred Dekker’s character work was on full display already. There was a cool shot of the Predator laser dots on @JacobTremblay. Olivia Munn sees this, pushes him behind her and dots move to her.
Just saw #ThePredator teaser. Lots of set-up and mystery surrounding a mission that Boyd Holbrook’s character was on where he encountered an “alien”. We see a ship crash land on Earth and various shots of the Predator in various places. (1/2)
The Predator trailer looks really good. Starts with a young boy finding some predator artifacts. A lot of bloody thrilling jungle action. Can’t wait to see more. #CinemaCon
“Jacob Tremblay opening a box was the best thing in the first footage from Shane Black’s The Predator. Fox showed a taste of the highly anticipated next entry in the scifi series at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, and while opinions will obviously be mixed, I was left very underwhelmed. […] There was no big standout moment in the footage. No hero shot of the Predator or clear idea of what exactly is going on. We assume Holbrook’s character sees a crashed ship, his team is killed, he sends his son evidence, the evidence brings down more Predators. Then, things go wild and soldiers are called in to stop the Predators, with the complication of scientists wanting to study them. Right?”
Maybe? While you can’t see the teaser trailer yet, you can see Jacob Tremblay’s great Ahhhnold impression:
