Fred Dekker talks The Predator in a new podcast with The Movie Crypt. In the new interview, Fred Dekker briefly discusses his work on The Predator, talking about the characters, keeping the mystery of the Predator, Black and Dekker’s inspiration and the scope of the film.
While discussing the approach he takes to writing characters and how he identifies that unique voice for his characters, Fred Dekker discussed what we can expect from the characters in The Predator:
“I used to just want to come up with quips and just smart alecky lines and what not. Now I’ve begun to look at the characters as attitude, really. This is something we’re doing on The Predator now. I can’t talk a lot about it but I tell you about the process of writing it. One of the things is that every character has kind of an attitude. Who is this person? What do they want? Why are they doing what they’re doing? And just by having each of those characters have a different agenda and a different life experience they start sounding different and they can bounce off each other like ping-pong balls. It’s really exciting and it’s relatively new to me.”
Dekker re-iterates later on that from his perspective as the writer he wants to tell a story where you’re interested in the characters, even if the Predator doesn’t make an appearance.
Fred Dekker says he wants to tell a story where you’re interested in the characters, even if the Predator doesn’t make an appearance.
When asked about where in the production process The Predator is, Dekker confirms that the script is finalized and that the film is currently being budgeted, that casting has begun and that they’re still aiming for a late September shoot.
Talking about the writing mentality behind the latest instalment, Dekker says: “[talking about Predator] It’s relatively simple. Our idea was “we know that story already”. What’s behind the curtain? Why are they here? What are they doing? What’s the bigger picture of this? They’ve touched on it a little in the other films, in the AvPs and whatnot.”
Having been asked about demystifying the Predator, Dekker hints at an exploration of the Predators that doesn’t remove their metaphorical teeth and make them less scary but also hints that this time maybe more than just a simple hunt:
“There’s a world out there…we know the Predators come from somewhere…we know they do. How did they get here? Why are they here? Those are questions I think you can answer, or at least explore, without defeating that sense of scariness. Who knows if their agenda has changed?”
Fred Dekker Talks The Predator: “Who knows if their agenda has changed?” Artwork by icedestroyer.
Dekker also mentions his excitement at working on the film though he admits that whilst he enjoyed the first film, he wasn’t as big a fan of Predator as director and writing partner, Shane Black, was. He also goes on to say that Black and Dekker have been inspired by Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Howard Hawks, that they were aiming for that level of emotion and gravitas.
Discussing the scope of the film, Dekker later compares Predator and The Predator to Alien and Aliens, saying that The Predator is akin to Aliens where “it’s not Ten Little Indians. It’s not just let’s kill off all of our characters – we have a lot of characters from a lot of different worlds and ideologies. I don’t mean by that other planets. It’s a lot of people doing a lot of things in a lot of locations.”
Be sure to head on over to The Movie Crypt and check out the whole podcast! The Predator talks begins at around 1:22:00. Thanks to Johnny Handsome for the news.
Once some story information or footage is shown then I think people can start developing an actual feeling on whether or not they like the direction the movie is going. Right now all we have are some generic and vague comments from Black, really nothing solid to go on, and nothing worth forming any negative opinions over.
Predators obviously have a society with the Elders and stuff, and i find that tremendously interesting, there is much potential there for cool stuff. All that great stuff we wouldn't know if Predator 2 didn't add certain elements it, just like with Aliens, the queen... sometimes you gotta have the balls to move forward and either it works or it doesn't.
Shane Black is no Paul Anderson and he said multiple times he wants to make the Predator creepy and mysterious again, even if they show new stuff, i'm sure it will be in line with the character.
Looks like we just disagree on this though, we want different movies and that's ok. For me, everything looks very promising so far.
Wolf hunted Aliens (and killed a few humans on the side). It was a different twist on the "hunting" angle.
I see what you're saying, but once you start deviating from the original concept (that the Predator is an intergalactic big-game hunter), you start running into problems.
One i could imagine is that the first Predator was on earth with a group of hunters, some others were in the citys and different jungles and we find out, that there is a competition going on between the Predators, who's coming home with the best trophy, who killed the biggest warrior? That would explain why the Predator was after Dutch and show us the "bigger picture" of the movie and that there is maybe more going on than "one Predator has some fun in the jungle", also why Predators may have some interest in Dutch, who's the guy that killed on of our most respected warriors?
No harm done to the original, just expanding the mythology.
There are many good ways to do this.
Wolf wasn't there to hunt in AvPR and he is one of the few things that is universally liked in that film.
Why? I don't get that feeling at all.
Hope I am wrong though.
Whenever you make a Predator film, and don't have the Predator doing Predator things (like hunting, skinning, decapitating, etc.), you're going to piss off a lot of patrons. It's that simple.
I've never said there would be 50 preds on bikes.But the planet will be at stake one way or another.
I'm not against the governments and OWLF trying to kill or capture a predator, that's what I would've done, and it's easy to
get back Dutch and give him the role he was supposed to play in P2 before the rewrites.
As long as the predator remains mysterious, and the planet as a whole is not at stake.
A movie with a Predator doesn't really need to be all about the hunt, i would love a Predator come to earth to get back a piece of stolen Predator technology for example. What if they did found some leftovers from the very first Predator? What if they found his spaceship or something? Would Predators not do anything about it? That would be a case of a "changed Agenda" for example, yet would still be very exciting. The "whats behind the curtain" comment could very well be, that they find out that there is actually a global hunt going on, 10 Predators at the same time hunting and killing people all over the world, that would actually allow for different locations and many characters and have Predator still do their thing.
You want a movie that is exclusively about the hunt, Predator killing people, people find out they are being hunted and kill the Predator... yawn, good for you. I want something a little more this time, involve the government and the military.
I love the first two movies, everybody knows that, but having seen them 500 times i just want something fresh this time, i want to be surprised and having that "holy shit" moment again.
But that's all just assumptions. Just because the film will travel to various locations around the globe, it doesn't mean there'll suddenly be some vast Predator army out in the open assaulting Earth in front of everybody.
Black's specifically said the film won't be that.
P1 and P2 can't be topped on their own turf, for the simple reason that they totally belong to their era, the best.
What they did at the end of Predator 2 was perfect, they let you guess.
The Predator will show you what's behind the curtain, but there wasn't any curtain in the first place because
it wasn't the point of the movies.They made two stories with a few deaths, confined in the jungle and LA, epic.
Now that the movie will involve much people around the world and show them to you, is the contrary.
I can already smell the "planet Earth is at stake here" bs.
Nowadays people need this , if not ,it's not epic.
And this is something that has been sorely lacking from the films since (dare I say it?) Alien Resurrection (sue me, I was at least entertained by Ripley 8 and Johner
I've yet to hear any news regarding this that has taken me back. Like HuDa, I'm probably more excited for The Predator than I am Covenant.
If i want to watch Predator 1 + 2 i'll go do that, i don't want the same movie over and over again. Everybody is screaming when the word "Remake" drops, yet, i have a feeling that a couple of people actually want exactly that.
I for one want to move forward with the franchise, worked really well with Predator 2, you saw spaceships, new weapons, a different Predator and a different setting, there is more great stuff for us to discover without making it a documentary. The new stuff in Predator 2 for example didn't harm the Predator or it's scariness at all, it only made it a more three-dimensional and interesting character.
We've seen a Predator a thousand times now and the things they do, what's the point of making another movie? Might as well introduce some new cool stuff.
Predators, for me, was partly so damn boring because they continued the formula of the other two movies and actually added nothing really interesting to the Predators themselves.
I don't want to know every little detail about them either, but after 26 years, the "pan could use some fresh oil".
I'm excited, why? Because there is nothing, absolutely nothing that suggests that this isn't going to be great, we have a passionate, kick-ass writer/director behind it that even starred in the original movie and a studio that is putting effort and money behind this and really hiring talent. What else should one ask for?
This is a great start for any movie and people should f**king be excited, considering where we were 10 years ago with the franchise, i'm damn grateful for this.
Same with Alien.
No arguments there whatsoever and while I do consider myself a fan.... I've been feeling my love for the franchises dwindling. Like the other day, I was watching all of the films (barring PREDATORS and Prometheus) and the excitement just... wasn't there anymore. I mostly played them for my Mom since she's a fan too but me? I just... wasn't really paying attention.
And I really don't feel much towards news regarding the movie, nothing negative but nothing optimistic either. I guess I'm wanting to get more concrete things. Nothing wrong with that, right? Don't get me wrong, there are some... concerns. I mean.. this new movie could make or break the franchise for me.
Predators certainly had its faults, but I do like that the preds used since fresh, new tactics (robotic falcon, alien "hounds," placing a serial killer in with the prey) and I hope we get to see that highly intelligent/sadistic side of the Predator continued even further.
That's the ultimate truth. While we maybe fans, we're all also individuals with many different backgrounds and it's impossible to to do any one thing that will please every single person who considers themselves a fan.
Whilst I love Predators, I do agree with this. From the sounds of it, we'll be all over the place though so who knows what we'll be seeing.
I'd be really interested in seeing some sort of artificial space habitat, like a spacestation or something. Change things up a little. I always liked the notion that the Predators are nomadic and I think a spacestation could both expand on mythology and also be mysterious.
I would love to see the Predators hunting some other XT. I really would. I thought it was a major missed opportunity in Predators. I think there's some real opportunities for interesting sequences involving the Predators on an alien world, hunting down some exotically designed creature.
I doubt they give half a shit about avpr. If anything it might have been brought up by someone and Black had the same response Scott did with the weyland problem which was "f**k avp i do what i want"
That would be nice but something tells me we might get something different based on that Shane likely isn't counting the AVPs as far as the continuity of this movie is concerned.
Every time I read a piece of news (that I've already found here) online, I see negative comments about "they're ruining the franchise" and stuff like that, when we know just about next to nothing about the movie. It's like they already know what the movie's like and hate it.
It could be horrible, it could be amazing, we can't tell yet. But I, for one, can't wait for the next news.
I'm not sure if Shane and Fred looked at AVP-R, but if we do see the Predator homeworld (admittedly, I don't want to.. once was enough), I wouldn't mind it being the same planet, but perhaps a different biome. I don't want to see a different planet and it being marketed out there as being the definitive homeworld, as I felt like the one we saw in AVP-R was definitely in line with what's Predator.
Oh, and I love the fanart. It'd be great to see them hunting some big creature.
Black and Decker is the name of a power tools company. The term Black and Dekker is a pun on the name.
Hey, I'm on the fence about this. I haven't said anything bad about it, aside from expressing a few concerns but I'm all wait and see about this. I'd like to know more before I voice an opinion out.
I like the new agenda thing, like maybe at first they came just for sport, but now they're interested and want to study us more, give us another chance, maybe rule us out of the hunting pool cause we're showing progress. There's a lot of possibilities, and the whole hunting thing does require a bit more explanation.
Where do they come from? A planet in space is not a real answer. Why do they hunt? Just for fun, or the trophies carry some value back home mean a lot more than something you stick on a wall?
And can someone please explain to me what's so tongue-in-cheek about "Black and Dekker" ?
Once i've heard "Spielberg" I was disappointed.I'll wait and see but I've lost my former enthusiasm.
I guess the good old hunt party with a good old predator stopped when Predator 2 ended, a very long time ago.
Some of the things still has me on the fence. Like with Dekker willing to answer questions like where they came from, why are they here, etc... I don't know, we know where they come from and we know they're here to hunt us. But the idea of it being more than a simple hunt... well, why exactly else would they want to be here? I mean if we are focusing on just.. one Predator.. what else could there be for it being here? Coupled with the idea that we maybe seeing Predator scientist and engineers... I can't imagine what's going on now.
The agenda of the hunt has changed? Mmmmm.... Well, I'mma wait and see to hear more. I just... I dunno.
Every new piece is filling me with confidence.
Mebe...
You did that on purpose...
Much as I hope this film is well received and favoured by the fans its inevitably going be be have fans who like it and those who don't, the original is so highly regarded its a tough act to live up to.
I'm extremely excited about the movie, and more and more with every new information we get.
You know what, I actually like this. We always here people drone on about how they're massive fans of the property - Anderson, Strause, Rodriquez. A slightly more outside perspective is a massively good thing. He didn't say he wasn't a fan, just not as big as Black and working together might mean we get a film that isn't pandering to the fans.
That's not quite what he's saying. I think he's saying he wants the characters to be that interesting that they'd hold the film without the Predator.
From the rest of it, it sounds like the actual Predator won't be the center of the movie. I'm a bit worried it'll be like Godzilla, where the movie technically is about Godzilla, but the actual creature is on screen for 10 minutes.
Then again, Predator wasn't on screen much longer in the original, but there was tension of his presence throughout.