For a while there, it seemed that every day brought forth some kind of new news bit regarding Shane Black’s The Predator, which is the fourth film in the franchise (not including the two AvP films). The last we heard was that Benicio del Toro had to step away from the film due to scheduling conflicts and that Boyd Holbrook (“Narcos”) was stepping in to take his place. Black gushes about this development to JoBlo, saying that Holbrook, “…who I’ve spent some time with now, he’s just marvelous, he’s amazing.”
He also told the site that the film, “…has to stand on its own two feet, but our goal is to make sure it acknowledges that, yeah, it is 30 years later in the continuity of the story. In other words, Dutch Schaefer’s patrol, which was attacked and largely slaughtered, happened 30 years ago in the context of the story. It’s referenced, it’s part of the mythology. In that way, it’s more of a sequel than a reboot.”
Black has also revealed more about the film, how it should be perceived, and what fans can expect to Collider. He started by telling them that production will begin in a few months and that he’s checking out locations in the coming weeks. “Right now we’re looking at probably beginning to mid February. I’m heading up to Vancouver in a week or two to go into a serious pre-production, so we’re on the cusp.”
He spoke also about the feel of the film and of the Predator series as a whole:
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.
Some recent news we reported was that James Franco might play the film’s lead, “Quinn McKenna”, as well as the securing of Amalgamated Dynamics Inc. as the special creature FX provider.
Black is directing from a script by Fred Dekker. John Davis, Joel Silver, and Lawrence Gordon — who produced the original — are producing with hopes to begin shooting next year.
Fox has set a release date for The Predator for February 9th, 2018.