News on Shane Black’s upcoming Predator 4 has been quite scarce since the initial announcements last July. Whilst originally touted as a reboot, Black came out and called the upcoming film an “inventive sequel“. Collider spoke to the Predator series producer, John Davis, at the Television Critics Association where Davis was promoting his new TV series, The Player and asked him about Predator 4:
“Shane shot a movie and he’s doing a pilot now, but I’ve read a lot of his script and I think it’s genius. I think it’s genius and I think it’s entertaining, and what it did is recreate a famous franchise in a different, interesting way; looking at it from a different light. He’s just an amazing writer-director. He’s got a way of looking at this that makes you excited again.”
“Shane’s got a writing partner, Fred Dekker. They’ve been doing it together and Fred’s great. The two of them together, they’ve been in the business for a long time, but the writing is so fresh, the perspective is so fresh. I’m telling you you’re going to get something you don’t expect and you’re going to say, ‘This is the most entertaining way to reinvent a franchise.”
Shane Black also played Hawkins (second from the left) in the original Predator.
Again Davis avoids calling Predator 4 a reboot and Collider makes a point of the phrase “reinvent the franchise” but what I really took notice of is the way Davis refers to Black “looking at it from a different light.” Reading into it a little I would suggest that perhaps Shane Black’s Predator 4 will try to break the mould and try something different from the previous films.
Unfortunately we still don’t have any information on when production on Predator 4 will get under full steam but be sure to keep checking back for further news. Thanks to ace3g for the tip.
Even the first one isn't as good as I used to remember it being when little. It's a fascinating concept, but I don't think any of the films have really done justice to the premise. Aside from ED-209's design, much of the decent stuff was essentially ripped from 'Judge Dredd' (quite literally in the case of the 'crotch shot' scene).
Robocop 3 was bad in its execution, if it was done in the same style as 1 and 2 i think we would have gotten a worthy ending to the series.
How many of RoboCop 3's problems were created by the studio though? By all accounts it was they who pushed for a kid-friendly movie after the first two.
Whoa!
Thanks for answering, Huda.
What concerns me is Fred Dekker writing this movie. Don't get me wrong, I like many of Dekker's movies like Night of the Creeps and Monster Squad but let's not forget that the man wrote and directed Robocop 3, a movie which killed the Robocop franchise but also Fred's career as a director.
Ironic enough, Shane also had a part in Robocop 3 as a minor role.
Spoiler
I hope you portray 'hunter' better than the novelization did! :-)
I'd love to see the Predator that we got take on the original one. Or to see the original get it's own movie. Am I the only one that wouldn't mind the latter? Just call it something other than Predator, of course.
I'm curious about what happened to Billy. Would you mind spoiling it for me?
Well, no not exactly. I was stretching the truth quite a bit actually... But not intentionally though; More so due to a faulty memory. Lol. My bad!
Was I?
Even if I did, the fact it doesn't quite gel with the film doesn't stop it being a really enjoyable read.
But yes, I completely agree! Predator's novelization portrayed the creature terribly! I kind of like the fact that all the characters came off as complete assholes, though. Seems more realistic for a bunch of hardened soldiers.
I just really don't like it's take on the monster. It's interesting how different it is but it's also vastly inferior to the version the film (and Stan Winston!) gave us. I also didn't like how most of the human characters came across as assholes rather than lovable badasses. The movie definitely softened them a lot.
Still, nice to know what really happened to Billy
Definitely my least favourite of all the novelisations. The Predator 2 novel is amazing though.
Yea, I got the novelization to ehance my appreciation of the movie; see what the predator was thinking rather than just what it sees... That sort of thing. It did indeed enhance my appreciation of the movie, only in a very different way; I caught a glimpse of the B monster movie that almost was... Lol
Just out of curiosity, hicks- have you read it? Or has anyone around here read it?
Oh my gawd! Dude! If you want to read a movie novelization that's soooo wildly different than the movie it's supposed to be based on, you should check out the first predator novelization! I'm pretty sure it was written based solely on the original script and the writer probably never bothered to change it after seeing the actual movie. The predator itself, if I remember correctly was the weird reptilian beetle thing that was originally planned befor Stan Winston got involved, running around with a sword and had the ability to shape shift into birds and such for some reason... I have the book, and read snippets then stopped. It wasn't predator! It was weird! Only real similarities were the character names and the book's cover had arnie in the crosshairs on it...
The Elder in Predator 2 more or less had some... acknowledgement of Harrigan's accomplishment, but the attitude was more like: "Hey, you won.. here's a cookie, now get the f**k off my ship."
I literally fell out of my chair I was laughing so hard. [emoji23]
Mind you I don't consider the novelization of Predator 2 as canon, as there are some things which contradict the film but I would think that there is something going on with Predators being aware of losses happening on Earth. I would think that most Predators know that there have been losses on other world, but most.. just couldn't care less. It happens quite a lot, and it's expected for them to die on the hunt, really.
Unless you count PREDATORS into the formula, then Noland's words could apply, you know the whole: "Everytime we kill one of them, that's when they get REAL interested" may apply perhaps to the Super Predators. Not so sure about the normal Predators though but I just think they wouldn't care.
The Elder in Predator 2 more or less had some... acknowledgement of Harrigan's accomplishment, but the attitude was more like: "Hey, you won.. here's a cookie, now get the f**k off my ship."
Thanks for reminding me of that bit, Rakai. I guess Arnie is known in the sense that he is searchable on their databases. Since this is an entire race, I think some Predators may recognize Arnie, while others would be ignorant.
The novelization of Predator 2 mention that the Predators do know about Dutch as he was one of the few, or first to ever defeat a Predator. I never read the novel but it's wiki article on Xenopedia.
As for a Predator hunting an old, aged Dutch? I don't know.. but I most certainly wouldn't want to see that.
This bit gave me a good chuckle.
But it's certainly true, they have strict rules and acknowledge respect, but in the end, it's not something they get all worked out over.
Predators are really salty about their culture (how they got angry with humans simply treading on the sacred grounds in AvP2010) that's something a Predator would slaughter a whole squad of Colonial Marines over rather than going to avenge his little brother that lost to some random human on Earth.
I think some Predators know about Dutch and Harrigan, but really don't care. Plus hunting season may be over and it may take a 100 years for the next to start (since they aren't poachers), whose gonna go after a geriatric Arnie?
I take back what I said previously. This is the final nail in the Predator franchise's coffin.
Then the other predators are sent to hunt him down. But he picks them off one by one without their weapons and technology. Like he could do the mud trick and make spears out of trees and stuff.
So it's predator hunting down a crazy predator. People have been in enough movie. Why not make a predator movie with just the predators. And they won't have to hold back because they will be against the same skilled opponents.
I hope it's something like that. And leave those ANT faced predators out of it. And don't tie up the normal predator for the whole movie and then gets killed a minute after he gets down. That was an insult to all predator fans.
I quite like the idea that they do know about Dutch, but the fact he fairly beat a Predator one-on-one earns him a degree of respect from the others and he's left alone.
If you kill one of them, it's not like their dad's going to come at you for it or whatever.
And if it was, why the f**k would they take so long getting their act in gear to do it?
They either don't know about Dutch (the most likeliest answer), have no way to locate him or just don't give a damn.
Don't you think the Predators would respect Dutch after surviving on his own and winning fair and square?
It doesn't seem in their character to go around looking for revenge, it's not personal. It was a game to them and that Predator lost.
I'd say the Predator would leave Dutch alive if he came across him in a crowd of people, even if he kills everyone else. Dutch earned his life in the eyes of Predators.
Something along those lines. Arnie's holed up, moved on with life, paranoid still tho...de-commissioned, he starts finding "evidence" or "clues" that Pred may be after him, that a pred is stalking him...etc...so many cool things...
There is nothing I want to see "new" with the Predator series. Nothing "re-invented". You got 2 guys (Glover) that fought and survived a f-cking Predator and I'm sposed to just believe that the Pred's don't care...(not including Brody, anything after Pred 2 is worthless to the franchise and the story)
Anyways.
Woo-f-cking-Hoo...
so excited, NOT.
Yeah sure...
Wow, sorry, I sound like a real asshole. I'm not saying this because I have a general dislike to the idea due to personal preference. Read Predator (2009), this is the closest to predators fighting a war with the U.S military in the EU. The concept begins to get really messy once the conflict rises. This isn't the only time we see this. In Predator Concrete Jungle (comic) an invasion is carried out on New York. Once again, it becomes messy. It's just the idea, it contradicts the image of what is established already for Predator.
If I were to perhaps throw in an idea.
What if we dedicate a segment to the rituals performed by the predators? Two warring clans pick a hunter to represent each other and have them fight to the death for the right of a special hunt. The setting would take place in Africa seeing as there is a type of relevance to the cultures found in certain countries in the contenent which would be further elaborated within the film. The losing clan is sour about the loss and sends one of their own to kill the hunter. The hunter finds out and tries to alert it's clan while trying to kill it's assailant. The protagonist attempts to track down and kill the both of them. Eventually the hunter's clan is informed and it begins to send out a request to any arbitrary clan within the area and the climax is a space battle between the rogue clan and the hunter's clan including arbitrators.
Using the comics as a reflection on what could possibly be done on screen is not a good idea. I should know; I read all of them. And I could safely say, most of them will not pull through as a movie adaptation. Intertwining a concept from the Alien universe into the Predator universe is a bad idea and is surely going to upset a lot of fans from both franchises.
Granted in terms of film, it is only the alien skull in Predator 2 that intertwines them. But from AvP2004 onward the Predator franchise only saw one standalone game which was Predator Concrete Jungle and it had a stage with aliens in it.
Alien is just breaking through with it's independence and I think it is time that Predator does so as well.
So I am not in agreement with the opinion that:
That predators fight a war with the U.S military; the military loses or wins and the world becomes the Alien universe.
I'm sorry if it offends you but I just hate it...