Movies
Shane Black Working On a Time Travel Horror Film!
Update: I made some major changes below as Black’s quote was originally reported out of context as if his time travel concept was part of his ‘The Predator’ screenplay. He was in fact talking about another screenplay that he’s been working on, which is a horror film with time travel elements.
Shane Black, who is directing The Predator for FOX, recently told the Empire Podcast the lead character’s name in the sequel set for release on February 9, 2018.
While he also talked a bit about event-izing the franchise, and shooting for the stars (he wants to create the same sense of wonderment and newness that Close Encounters had when it came out), there was a pretty huge piece of news that most outlets overlooked.
Black, who cleaned up the original Predator screenplay and co-starred, revealed that he’s been tinkering with a horror film with time travel elements, but ultimately kept tripping into plot holes.
“It’s still in the hopper, I never finished it,” Black explained of the film’s specific genre. “It was supposed to be time travel done as horror, and I couldn’t figure out the time travel of it, it got too confusing for me. But I’ll still go back to it. I love the idea of time travel as horror, but I can’t keep my head straight when I’m trying to write it. I keep violating my own rules.”
Can you imagine a Shane Black time travel movie? Honestly, though, I’d see anything he writes and directs…
In regards to The Predator, back in April we reported that Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson is telling people that he’s probably going to star in the Predator followup, being penned by Fred Dekker.
“I’ll be doing some new feature films and stuff like that too. I’ll do Predator,” Jackson told Sirius XM’s Shade 45. He confirmed this in a second interview, this time with 99 Jamz UnCensored: “I’m working on some new projects. You heard of the movie Predator? I might be a part of that project this summer.”
Jackson already has a relationship with Arnold Schwarzenegger (rumored to appear) as he co-starred in Escape Plan with Sylvester Stallone.
Producer John Davis recently exclaimed that the next Predator would reinvent the franchise, while we’ve been told by insiders that it’s a direct sequel to John McTiernan’s 1987 Predator. Most recently, Black stated that The Predator will be an expensive “spectacle”!
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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