A shocking revelation involving Olivia Munn and Shane Black alum Steven Wilder Striegel has forced 20th Century Fox to remove a minor scene from The Predator at the 11th hour.
The Los Angeles Times has the scoop, revealing that Black had cast his friend Steven Wilder Striegel for a minor role in The Predator, despite him being a registered sex offender.
Eight years ago, Striegel pleaded guilty to attempting to “lure a 14-year-old female into a sexual relationship via the Internet.” Shane Black was aware of this, having previously cast Steven Wilder Striegel for The Nice Guys and Iron Man 3. However, by withholding this information from the Predator cast, he drew the ire of Olivia Munn, who quickly alerted 20th Century Fox to the situation.
To their credit, the studio moved swiftly, and have since removed a three-page scene involving Striegel’s character (a nondescript jogger) making repeated sexual advances towards Munn’s Casey Bracket.
In a statement, the actress admitted that she finds it “both surprising and unsettling that Shane Black, our director, did not share this information to the cast, crew, or Fox Studios prior to, during, or after production. However, I am relieved that when Fox did receive the information the studio took appropriate action by deleting the scene featuring Wilder to release of the film.”
Black did offer up his own statement to the LA Times, stating that he “personally chose to help a friend,” even if he understands why “others might disapprove, as his conviction was on a sensitive charge and not to be taken lightly.”
Still, 20th Century Fox has wasted no time in removing Striegel’s scene from The Predator – and not a moment too soon, given the horror-thriller is due to hit theaters next Friday. As for why the studio didn’t act on this before, it’s seemingly unable to carry out background checks on its ensemble cast due to legal limitations.
Via Twitter:
https://twitter.com/oliviamunn/status/1037587605422915584
The Predator opens big on Friday, September 14th.