Shane Black to co-write and direct the reboot of Predator

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

Shane Black is about to get to the choppa as the IRON MAN 3 director has been announced to co-write and direct the reboot of the beloved PREDATOR franchise. 20th Century Fox has revealed that Black will team with his buddy Fred Dekker (THE MONSTER SQUAD) to develop the screenplay, according to The Hollywood Reporter. While Black will develop the story treatment, Dekker will flesh out the full script.

John McTiernan‘s 1987 original is a modern classic that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger and spawned several mediocre films featuring the alien hunter. Danny Glover starred in PREDATOR 2 while Robert Rodriguez and Nimrod Antal finally brought a decent follow-up in the form of PREDATORS with Adrien Brody. In beween, we had the ALIEN VS PREDATOR films which really should have been a lot better than they were.

Shane Black has been a fan favorite screenwriter for years after bringing us LETHAL WEAPON and KISS KISS BANG BANG before jumping into the Marvel world with last year’s IRON MAN 3. He has since been developing a DOC SAVAGE movie (potentially with Chris Hemsworth in the title role) and recent news had him trying to unite Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling for THE NICE GUYS. There is also a very interesting story of how he was connected to the original PREDATOR:

When Predator was being made in 1986, Black was already a screenwriting prodigy for his Lethal Weapon and Monster Squad scripts. The studio and producers wanted him to polish the script for Predator, which was then in pre-production. Black turned it down. A few weeks later, they approached him again. Once more, Black said no. Another few weeks went by, and then the studio called again. This time, however, he was told there was a small role in the movie and whether he would like to have it. Black said yes. When he arrived to the South American set, the studio execs and producers greeted him and said, “By the way, would you mind taking a look at the script?” Black replied, “I’m still not rewriting it.”

While it would have been very cool to see John McTiernan come back for a new PREDATOR, I am very cool with Shane Black taking the reins. This could be a very exciting project to watch, but the question is when will it actually happen? With THE NICE GUYS possibly shooting this fall and DOC SAVAGE having budget issues at Sony, the new PREDATOR may not even film until 2016 at this rate, assuming Black stays in the director’s chair. At the very least, Dekker and Black will turn in a great script.