One of science-fiction's most memorable creations will soon be making a comeback courtesy of Shane Black (THE NICE GUYS), who aims to bring the Predator franchise back in line with the first film. Although neither PREDATOR 2 or PREDATORS were bad films, they unfortunately couldn't live up to John McTiernan's original. With production on THE PREDATOR due to kick off in Vancouver next February, there's high hope that Black's sequel will prove worthy of the original. The director recently spoke with Collider where he revealed what sort of tone he intends to set in the upcoming sequel.
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… 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).
Another way in which Shane Black's sequel will relate to the original will be its ensemble cast, with Black saying that "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." We haven't heard all that much on the casting front for THE PREDATOR yet, other than Boyd Holbrook possibly stepping in to replace Benicio del Toro, but with production quickly approaching, I suspect we'll be hearing something official before too long. For those of you worrying that THE PREDATOR would be a watered-down PG-13 affair, never fear as both Fox and Shane Black have agreed that an R-rating is the only way to go.
Fox has been very cooperative. I mean part of it is the success they had with Deadpool, but I also made a case—and I think they agreed—that fans of the Predator generally, probably aren’t looking to go to see a PG-13-rated version of it. It would be more of a letdown if it was sort of tailored to a family friendly audience than if it were allowed to play out to the same scale and level that the first R-rated one did.
THE PREDATOR is set for a February 9, 2018 release.