Yes, the Predator franchise is getting a reboot or redo of update called Predators. Yes, everything is getting a reboot these days.
Why? It’s all about the marketing. They know the franchises that were popular with middle agers or pre-middle agers will get their attention and since it nailed their attention span back then, it may get the younger generations attention span again, too. They’re nailing two demographics in one shot. Basic marketing 101.
But enough about that noise.
First off Robert Rodriguez is producing this rehash of one of my all time favorite movie characters. That’s fine. I’ve never hated anything he’s done.
Then the news was that the writer snagged for the project was Alex Litvak. Rodriguez is having him work over a spec script he (Rodriguez) wrote 15 years ago on the premise of Predator.
Later on I picked up on the noise that a 2nd screenplay writer came on board, a Michael Finch.
But then everyone was wondering if it would be a sequel?
Rumors were that Neil Marshall might be directing the project. Marshall is responsible for my other top fave projects, Dog Soldiers and The Descent. Both awesome projects.
But then word came down the pipe that Nimrod Antal would direct this new Predators chapter.
EH? He’s the guy behind the soon to be released movie Armored, and also directed the 2007 project Vacancy and Kontroll (2003). He’s had limited exposure here in the U.S. but we’ll see soon enough how he can handle action in Armored. The previews look good!
Then we learned that they started filming on September 28th of 2009 and the outline of the story was going to be about a group of people stranded on a Predator planet… ooh, that sounds interesting. They’re stranded on the planet because they’ve been abducted and placed there by the predators themselves.
As far as casting goes, I see Topher Grace (That 70’s Show), Adrien Brody (The Brothers Bloom, King Kong, The Village), Denny Trejo (lots of cool stuff, and 17 projects in some form of pre-release production), Alice Braga (I Am Legend, Crossing Over), Derek Mears (Friday the 13th, The Hills Have Eyes II), Walton Goggins (Det Vendrell from The Shield), Oleg Taktarov (UFC fighter), Mahershalalhashbaz Ali (The 4400) and Louis Ozawa Changchien.
It should be interesting to see that goofy kid from That 70’s Show, Topher Grace pull off an action film. Denny Trejo is someone I expect a lot of action out of. Derek Mears, I suspect, may be a Predator. He has no character name next to his name in the IMDB list.
But as I look over the reported run down on the characters, it’s interesting:
Brody’s character is known as a hunter of men. Grace is an accountant-type whose is really a serial killer. Then we have Braga as the tough female killer. Ali is the kind of guy who isn’t afraid of death, Goggins is the loose canon (Anyone find that shocking?) and Taktarov is a former Russian special ops agent. Trejo, as always ,is a hardened warrior.
Yea, from the sounds of things, typecasting had nothing to do with this, more or less, and we’ll get some amazing growth from some of the actors in this Predators movie project.
Right now, they have a month of filming left and the project is slated for a mid 2010 release. (July 7th I believe they’ve said.)
And if you’re worried about how the previous renditions of Predator have gone, don’t worry. The creative gang is headed back to the original look from the 1st movie. That’s what they say any way… though I didn’t mind the look in the first AVP.
They’re probably sticking to a guy in a suit mode. The original worked well that way.
And the creative force behind the Predators movie project are all big fans. That always helps when a fan takes the reigns of a project.
The movie is going to be rated R (THANK GOD) and is slated for a July 2010 release.
Now where the heck are the promos!? This sounds like it’s going to rock!
references: IESB, Bloody Disgusting (1), Bloody Disgusting (2), AICN, Coming Soon, IMDB, Heat Vision, First Showing.
Predator Triple Feature (Predator/ Predator 2/ AVP: Alien vs. Predator) on Amazon
