Shane Black is going big with The Predator

Last Updated on July 31, 2021

At this point, pretty much nothing is known about the next entry in the PREDATOR franchise beyond the title (THE PREDATOR), who's making it (Shane Black, who had an acting role in the first film, is directing from a script he crafted with his THE MONSTER SQUAD collaborator Fred Dekker), and the release date (March 2, 2018). Now that Black is making the press rounds for his upcoming film THE NICE GUYS, he's probably going to start getting a lot of questions about THE PREDATOR, and the subject did indeed come up during a recent interview with Thrillist.

While Black continued to keep details under his hat, he did give a bit more information about his approach to the material beyond his previous quote about it being an "inventive sequel". He mentions that when he was first offered THE PREDATOR, he was reluctant because he didn't want to make a movie that was just another PREDATOR movie. He wanted to make something bigger.

I said, "Look. You guys at Fox, I mean, I enjoy these movies, but we've been churning out these AVP whatever, they each cost a certain amount of money, they're okay, but there's no effort to elevate them or make them any kind of an event." They're just sort of another Predator. "Oh, there's another one that came out." They said, "What if we said to you we want to reinvent this, and really treat it with as much of an event status, or as much hoopla as we would the Alien prequel, which is coming out also? We really want to make this something. The kind of movie that people line up for." I said, "Really, you'll spend a bunch of money?" They go, "Yep." I go, "Make it really scale, spectacle?" "Yep." "Shit, that sounds interesting."

I think the first one was great, and it was contained, and it was a perfect little gem for what it was. I think there's an expansion that needs to take place, and also just a love for that era, that movie, and the mythology of the Predator. I think that they came to me knowing pretty much that… they said, basically, if I wanted to make Predator but treat it like it was Iron Man III instead of just another little movie. I said, "Let's really do it right this time."

In a time when you usually hear of filmmakers trying to cut down their budgets to get their movie made, it's almost jarring to hear one say they'll only make a movie if the studio will spend a bunch of money on it, but the thought of a large scale event film PREDATOR sequel certainly sounds intriguing.

Thrillist went on to ask Black if the original PREDATOR's star Arnold Schwarzenegger would be returning for THE PREDATOR. He answered, 

Still in talks, script still a secret.