Shane Black recently caught up with Thrill List to discuss some of his upcoming projects, including his new Predator film. During the exchange, he had a lot of interesting things to say about where he plans to take the franchise.
Perhaps most worthy of note is that Black wouldn’t sign on until he had the studio’s assurance that they would be treating the property with the utmost respect and investing a hefty budget into the franchise relaunch. “They called me and I was reluctant,” Black told Thrill List. “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.”
As for wether or not Arnold Schwarzenegger will be returning or not, Black told the outlet that they are still in talks and that the details of the script are still being very closely guarded.
The picture is scheduled for release March 2nd, 2018. It is a collaboration between writer Fred Dekker (The Monster Squad) and Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang). Decker made the announcement last year that he had finished his treatment of the script but things were fairly quiet on the Predator front until recently. In the past few weeks, we have seen a teaser image released and The Governator himself even revealed that he has plans to speak with Black about a possible return to the franchise. We still don’t know when production is slated to begin but with a release date announced, it’s likely set to commence in the near future.
When the project was first announced, it was rumored that this would be a direct sequel to the first film, ignoring all the others that came after it. And it seems as though that is still the case.
Stay tuned to the site in the coming months for more on this as it is announced as well as the latest in horror news and more!
