Of all the franchise reboots due to be churned out by Hollywood in the coming years, one of the most highly anticipated is The Predator, from 20th Century Fox. Directed by Shane Black (who starred in the original Predator in 1987), from a script he co-write with Fred Dekker, it’s intended to reignite the iconic film series and draw an entirely new generation of fans to its high concept premise. Updates on the production have been few and far between, though – which is why it’s noteworthy that a recent conversation between Stacey Snider and Variety provides a new perspective on the movie.
Stacey Snider gave the interview to mark her first anniversary as Chairperson and CEO of 20th Century Fox, and in a wide-ranging discussion, the studio head took time to detail her take on the nature of the Predator reboot.
“We’ve got a Predator film coming out that is unexpected and utterly fresh. I just imagined that it would take 500 hours to read the script — that it would be interior jungle, exterior more jungle and then fighting happens, but Emma [Watts] went out and recruited Shane Black. From the first page, it didn’t read like a Predator film. It’s set in suburbia. There’s a little boy and his dad at the center of the action.”
It’s a little odd that Snider describes Predator as “unexpected,” and cites the fact that it’s set in suburbia instead of the jungle as the thing that gives it an interesting spin. The original Predator was set in the jungle, but 1990’s Predator 2 took the action to the streets of Los Angeles. Franchise spinoff/cross-over, Aliens vs Predator: Requiem (2007) saw the two extra-terrestrial hunters face-off in a small Colorado town, while 2010’s Predators returned the story to the jungle. So, it’s safe to say that the Predator menace has cropped up in population centres as often as it has in remote and isolated rainforest locales.
Surely, it’s not the suburbia setting that will make Predator “unexpected and utterly fresh.” Nor is it the fact that it is, at its heart, another big-screen father-and-son tale. Rather, its freshness and unexpected nature will likely stem from the filmmaking of Shane Black, and his determination to use as many practical effects as possible – in addition to its excellent cast, which includes Boyd Holbrook, Jacob Tremblay, Olivia Munn and Keegan Michael-Key.
We’ll find out just how unexpected and fresh the movie is when The Predator lands in theatres on August 3rd, 2018.
