Your scepticism over the new Predator film is well-placed, I can assure you. Ever since Arnie starred in the unforgettable 1987 action flick, the follow-ups haven’t exactly lived up to the billing. Although Predators was a decent a movie, it didn’t quite offset the travesty that was Alien vs Predator: Requiem.
Director Shane Black, who coincidentally got his Hollywood break by writing Lethal Weapon in the same year before penning the script for Arnie’s Last Action Hero, has been appointed the man to breathe new life into the Predator franchise. And, in doing so, he’s assured us that his movie will be R-Rated, just like the first one.
He told Den of Geek via our friends at Square-eyed.tv: “I made a condition of my participation with Predator that it be the same rating as the first movie, and the first movie was Rated R. In other words, I don’t want to cut away every time the Predator does something violent. I was watching the American version of The Grudge, which was PG-13, and I remember being so frustrated by the fact that everything that was scary in the Japanese version, they had to cut away from in the PG-13 American version.”
“There’s also a sensibility and a sense of brooding menace and we can have fun but there’s an element of horror that’s unmistakable in The Predator,” he continued. “I don’t want to have to compromise it by just treating it like a popcorn film. That said, I hope there’s some popcorn viewing available in it, too. It’s an R-rated popcorn movie, which is the best kind to me.”
Black, speaking at the same press junket for his upcoming detective comedy The Nice Guys, revealed to ComingSoon.net that he would indeed create a different suit for the Predator.
“It’s not to ‘improve,’ it’s make it fun, make it different, make it organically different,” Black told us of his plans for the Predator costume. “So what’s the extension of it that makes sense, that’s exciting? There have been a lot of changes to Stan’s design over the years. These different Predator movies have done different things. Ultimately it’s not about design to me, it’s about the story you want to tell.
“There are people who are always going to agonize over Iron Man, what color his suit is. Maybe this weapon does a new thing, but if the story is not good I don’t give a sh*t what color the suit is. In ‘The Predator’ we’re doing a lot of upgrades to what you would consider to be the traditional Predator technology and look, but hopefully the story is what’s going to drag people in, not just the attention to the minutiae.”
The Predator will begin filming either this September or October for a March 2, 2018 release.
Irwin Fletcher
I'm an LA journalist who really lives for his profession. I have also published work as Jane Doe in various mags and newspapers across the globe. I normally write articles that can cause trouble but now I write for FTN because Nerds are never angry, so I feel safe.
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