With Shane Black deep in pre-production on The Predator, the filmmaker has been speaking to Collider about reviving the sci-fi action franchise, and the tone he plans to adopt for the film.
“I think the Predator movies have slightly veered from typical sci-fi in that there is a sort of thriller aspect to them. 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,” said Black. “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 (laughs).”
We’re still waiting on some official casting news (with Benicio Del Toro having pulled out of talks), but the director went on to reveal that he’s inspired by the type of ensemble present in 1987 original (which saw Black co-starring as Hawkins):
“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.”
The remainder of the interview saw Black confirming that Fox have been very supportive of his plans to make the movie R-rated, and revealing that he expects to start shooting the movie in February ahead of its planned release on February 9th 2018.
Originally published October 26, 2016. Updated April 16, 2018.
