Latest News

Writer Fred Dekker Talks Original Third Act for The Predator

It’s safe to say that last year’s The Predator was not exactly the resounding success we were hoping for.

While the movie did have its merits, a surprising controversy, disappointing box office results, and mixed to negative reviews all but ensured that any plans for a sequel to Shane Black and Fred Dekker’s vision for the franchise would likely be abandoned.

Earlier this year, Co-Writer Fred Dekker expressed his disappointment with the fan reaction to the film and its tacked-on ending, but just recently he sat down with Moviefone for an in-depth interview on how he feels the re-shoots affected the final product:

“At some point or another, the studio, I think, and I’m not pointing fingers at anyone in particular, but there were these misgivings that we were straying too far from what people expected the movie to be. And so we sat down and went, “I guess we need to do a hunt and it needs to be at night, so it’s scarier.” So we ended up going in that direction, which I don’t think served us because it didn’t top anything we’d seen before. I’m actually quite pleased with the first half of the movie, but it kind of goes off the rails by, and Hollywood does this all the time by, trying to appeal to everyone, you appeal to no one.”

 Writer Fred Dekker Talks Original Third Act for The Predator

It’s a shame that it seems Dekker and Black’s creative vision for the film was compromised by studio involvement. While additive re-shoots can sometimes help a film become more cohesive, all too often these days they are massive cuts and changes to the planned story to try and increase mainstream appeal.

Dekker also discussed how the original third act panned out, involving the ‘Emissary Predators’ teaming up with the film’s hero gang ‘The Loonies.’ to fight a group of hybrid-monsters:

So our idea was that their planet is dying. And so they’ve decided to take what previously was explored, which is to dope up creatures with the DNA of other types of predators from alien worlds and create new targets for their hunt. But now they realized, well, hey, we need maybe to upgrade ourselves just to survive. And then they go to themselves, well, hey, earth is warming up. We like a warm environment. Maybe we should move in. So the premise of the movie is that in the third act was these two predators come aboard the ship and everybody’s freaking out and the predators actually want to communicate. They want to say, “Hey, we’ve got a problem, you have a problem. Maybe we should team up.” 

The interview is actually quite extensive, touching on more topics such as their attempt to get Arnold Schwarzenegger to film a cameo for the ending. Head on over to Moviefone to read the whole thing.  If you’re more curious about the many story elements cut from The Predator, be sure to check out our analysis into the deleted scenes.

Keep a close eye on Alien vs. Predator Galaxy for the latest on Alien and Predator! You can follow us on FacebookTwitter and Instagram to get the latest on your social media walls. You can also join in with fellow Alien and Predator fans on our forums!



Post Comment
Comments: 64
« Newer Comments 12 Older Comments »
  1. The Old One
    Ouch Fred Dekker, you'll trigger Neill Blomkamp with such a statement about the memorability of certain characters of Alien³/Aliens, even though you're correct to the majority of a modern audience.
  2. TeeJay
    The premise of The Predator was weak. Predators are about challenge and adversity in the Hunt and the overwhelming danger a single one presents to human beings. The only purpose of a super predator was to amplify the sense of danger. Yet, in the end, the super predator was eliminated handily. This mocked the idea of genetic enhancement, which itself has been done before. Plus, Olivia Munn was badly miscast and executed by script writers and actress alike. She behaved like a Navy Seal who happened to have a genetics degree and was, like the clown scientists in Alien: Covenant, quite unscientific. Black tried too hard to replicate the chemistry of the boys in the first Predator movie but ended up with a group less impressive than that in Predators. In the end, the danger arose for a bit and then was eliminated. The rest of the story - the end of the direction it was headed - was just left hanging. Coming to our world? Heck, no! The Predator didn't go anywhere except in a circle. We needed a home run. We got a long fly foul ball.
  3. Voodoo Magic
    Quote from: Jenga on Jul 22, 2019, 05:54:09 PM
    To "PsyKor" what a great analogy! "The Predator" is totally the Robocop 3 of the predator franchise. Bigger action, no brains, new cast, removal of what made the original great while doing a half-hearted tone-deaf retread of some ideas while completely abandoning others. THIS movie is tragically bad and it breaks my heart that so many amazing creature people worked on it. It's sad how good creature work can essentially be tarnished by bad movies and vice versa.

    I'm going to place this right here....

    https://i.ibb.co/Xz0vLbw/IMG-20190321-130005.jpg

    ...and disappear. ;D

    https://thumbs.gfycat.com/HelpfulAlarmedEmperorshrimp-size_restricted.gif

  4. Jenga
    To "PsyKor" what a great analogy! "The Predator" is totally the Robocop 3 of the predator franchise. Bigger action, no brains, new cast, removal of what made the original great while doing a half-hearted tone-deaf retread of some ideas while completely abandoning others. THIS movie is tragically bad and it breaks my heart that so many amazing creature people worked on it. It's sad how good creature work can essentially be tarnished by bad movies and vice versa.
  5. Huggs
    The only parts of The Predator I could tolerate were the opening in the woods, the interior parts of the base escape, and a few moments in the forest hunt at the end.

    As far as I'm concerned, the franchise excels at close quarters horror and sci-fi. Politics and global implications are just not its thing. Hostile predators hunting people in the subway, in buildings, alleyways, patches of forest. That's where the magic is.
  6. HumanPredator
    "So our idea was that their planet is dying. And so they've decided to take what previously was explored, which is to dope up creatures with the DNA of other types of predators from alien worlds and create new targets for their hunt. But now they realized, well, hey, we need maybe to upgrade ourselves just to survive. And then they go to themselves, well, hey, earth is warming up. We like a warm environment. Maybe we should move in. So the premise of the movie is that in the third act was these two predators come aboard the ship and everybody's freaking out and the predators actually want to communicate. They want to say, "Hey, we've got a problem, you have a problem. Maybe we should team up." "

    This whole thing of "this happens...and that happens...and this happens" is why the movie failed.  This whole idea was garbage.
  7. Enjoy
    It was a step or three backwards for sure. The begining scene with the predator jumping from tree to tree and getting guts pourd on his face is still fun to watch.
    It is by far the most unrewatchable  predator film. With tiny silvers of entertainment scattered about.

    I hope Disney can do better.
  8. Nameless_1
    Even the lab escape scene is terrible once you closely watch it and see all of the poor choreography, from soldiers with rifles trying to attack at close range to the Fugitive's terrible gun handling.
  9. Wysps
    Quote from: razeak on Jul 14, 2019, 10:41:48 PM
    Perfect storm of bad script, bad casting, bad directing, and studio meddling.  I gave it another try, but it was worse since I already knew the humorous moments.

    These two franchises have it rough. That could be a documentary on its own. You have to do something new, but it should probably be slight deviations rather than total overhauls .

    This so much. I mean, if you're going to make changes, at least do it incrementally imo. Don't completely change things so its almost like a different franchise altogether.
  10. Enjoy
    I almost feel that this is all political or out of spite or just about paying off some Fox ceo's private island and not about making a great movie that sticks to what makes predator interesting. Legend studios stan winston for example.
    I need another pay check so make a predator movie dont care the fans will pay anyway.
  11. dinosauriac
    That interview is just headache-inducing. Shane and Fred seem like okay guys, and I've got a lot of respect for their early work, but this just reads like someone who doesn't understand the basics of the universe they're working in. Every idea that was thrown out was legitimately worse than what was put in or made no logical sense whatsoever, and what actually end up in the movie was terrible to begin with.

    When you have the balls to conduct interviews pre-release saying "we'd only do this if it's a real event picture!" and talk up how it's their dream project etc. Then the final product looks like a SyFy Original, feeling cheaper than AVPR and dumber than Alien Resurrection. Not to mention the sheer hubris of calling it THE Predator, like some franchise reboot.. God the more I learn about this thing the worse it is.
  12. Enjoy
    Dude you do not get my point. No movie gets made untill studio says yes. If i give you two choices one good one bad and you choose bad then it is your fault not the guy who had the bad idea
  13. D88M
    Quote from: Huggs on Jul 13, 2019, 09:05:28 PM
    Quote from: Voodoo Magic on Jul 13, 2019, 05:26:55 PM
    You co-star in Predator you're qualified to write Predator, apparently.

    If only there had been some clue.

    https://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cheatsheet.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F07%2FBen-Kingsley-in-Iron-Man-3-1.jpg%3Fbe6cc4&hash=29b267157a81f13fa5152092ffc54999a7d91b55

    Interesting that IM3 was the exact same problems as The Predator: abuse of out of place comedy and completely unrelated story and characters to the brand the movie is named after, so i know that is a Shane thing and not a studio being **** thing.
  14. Enjoy
    Ultimatly it is Fox studios fault becaue they green light it and can influence the plot.
    I just hope the people at disney get Legend Studios working on whatever comes next and do not over officiate to the point they ruin the creative direction of the franchise.
    Predator still has all the potential in the right hands.
    Just too bad about all the wasted time and let downs when the films are being produced.



  15. razeak
    Perfect storm of bad script, bad casting, bad directing, and studio meddling.  I gave it another try, but it was worse since I already knew the humorous moments.

    These two franchises have it rough. That could be a documentary on its own. You have to do something new, but it should probably be slight deviations rather than total overhauls .
  16. Enjoy
    Just watch Fox news and pretend they have say over how a predator movie should be made.
    I am certain I woud have enjoyed the intended movie more. But not much more.

  17. Still Collating...
    Quote from: SM on Jul 14, 2019, 10:54:21 AM
    I don't really have any issues with the  lore as such.

    There was just a few things wrong with the execution, and the longer it went more things went wrong.

    I honestly hope that I'll warm up to it eventually.

    Quote from: Voodoo Magic on Jul 14, 2019, 12:11:28 PM
    Quote from: Nameless_1 on Jul 13, 2019, 08:51:37 PM
    Even if for some reason the Predator Homeworld was dying, Black and Dekker seem to have completely forgotten about the Game Preserve planet established in Predator 3, which would easily be able to support them.

    Great point!

    Quote from: Still Collating... on Jul 14, 2019, 09:55:53 AM
    Even with Covenants somewhat disappointment in performance, there's a reason we're having so much alien content now and the predator stuff is put mostly on "silent mode".

    With Alien, I think it's easy to identify a lot of that was genesis from and buildup to Alien's 40th Anniversary less than two months ago, a fortunate well-timed palate cleanser for all that saw and felt sour towards Alien Covenant.

    With Predator, I feel this pause after The Predator will service it well. It will alow fans and filmgoers to forget this, quite honest, easily forgettable film. Then in 2020 we get the Predator: Hunting Grounds Playstation Console game by IllFonic which, if great, hopefully will recharge the material.



    Touche :)
  18. Voodoo Magic
    Quote from: Nameless_1 on Jul 13, 2019, 08:51:37 PM
    Even if for some reason the Predator Homeworld was dying, Black and Dekker seem to have completely forgotten about the Game Preserve planet established in Predator 3, which would easily be able to support them.

    Great point!

    Quote from: Still Collating... on Jul 14, 2019, 09:55:53 AM
    Even with Covenants somewhat disappointment in performance, there's a reason we're having so much alien content now and the predator stuff is put mostly on "silent mode".

    With Alien, I think it's easy to identify a lot of that was genesis from and buildup to Alien's 40th Anniversary less than two months ago, a fortunate well-timed palate cleanser for all that saw and felt sour towards Alien Covenant.

    With Predator, I feel this pause after The Predator will service it well. It will alow fans and filmgoers to forget this, quite honest, easily forgettable film. Then in 2020 we get the Predator: Hunting Grounds Playstation Console game by IllFonic which, if great, hopefully will recharge the material.

    QuoteI know that not everyone agrees with this though, but I do enjoy AVPR more than The Predator. I have fun more with a movie that tries to be serous and scary but fails than a movie that tries to be funny and fails. I've watched AVPR multiple times, I at least find it has fun moments, but I really can't make myself watch The Predator again with the only nice bit being the lab escape scene.

    I agree with all of this.  :)

  19. SM
    I don't really have any issues with the  lore as such.

    There was just a few things wrong with the execution, and the longer it went more things went wrong.
  20. Still Collating...
    Quote from: SM on Jul 14, 2019, 01:12:13 AM
    Quote from: Samhain13 on Jul 13, 2019, 11:55:51 PM
    On Alien/Predator? No. Just because its science fiction doesn't mean one can do anything. But in that case its quite easy to make the AVP movies fit in with David creating the alien. Just asspull timetraveling to explain any inconsistencies on movies or EU. Yay.

    Besides Newt and Ripley died. Its wouldn't be just time travel but alternative timelines as well. At least this didn't happen.

    :laugh:
    It's make believe.  They can literally do anything.

    It's Fox/Disney's decision, yes, they can and will do whatever they want, there are no limits in a fictional universe. That doesn't mean they should.

    To quote someone's uncle... "With great power comes great responsibility"

    They tried something new, a lot of the fans didn't like where they went with the lore or the writing, lets not forget that, reviews were poor and the casual audience wasn't impressed enough to give it good word of mouth. It just didn't work and didn't perform as well as they hoped. Even with Covenants somewhat disappointment in performance, there's a reason we're having so much alien content now and the predator stuff is put mostly on "silent mode".

    IMO the retroactive lore changes didn't work here. From a simple spine and skull loving techno tribal hunter to a rioded up planet invader with a corny sense of humor. The writing was very bad, as far as my taste goes, it didn't fit in well. The ending scene was hilarious and the alternative endings were unbelievable in the worst possible way. And the setting was very dull.
    This movie is weird for me. I've never disliked an entry in the Alien/Predator universe this much and I really tried to not be a part of the hate fest, I tried to like the movie but it didn't work. I either enjoyed or loved all the other movies from both franchises as well as the games, comics, novels, but with this entry, my optimism and looking on the bright side of things failed.

    I know that not everyone agrees with this though, but I do enjoy AVPR more than The Predator. I have fun more with a movie that tries to be serous and scary but fails than a movie that tries to be funny and fails. I've watched AVPR multiple times, I at least find it has fun moments, but I really can't make myself watch The Predator again with the only nice bit being the lab escape scene.

    P.S. Every time I see mentioned about the change to the night setting cause that's where the scary comes from, I literally laugh. 
  21. SM
    Quote from: Samhain13 on Jul 13, 2019, 11:55:51 PM
    On Alien/Predator? No. Just because its science fiction doesn't mean one can do anything. But in that case its quite easy to make the AVP movies fit in with David creating the alien. Just asspull timetraveling to explain any inconsistencies on movies or EU. Yay.

    Besides Newt and Ripley died. Its wouldn't be just time travel but alternative timelines as well. At least this didn't happen.

    :laugh:
    It's make believe.  They can literally do anything.
  22. Samhain13
    I don't think those people at Fox are able to plan that far ahead. Or even have any idea at all on what they were trying to go with this. They are like dogs chasing cars, they wouldn't know what to do if they caught one, you know, they just do things.
  23. Samhain13
    On Alien/Predator? No. Just because its science fiction doesn't mean one can do anything. But in that case its quite easy to make the AVP movies fit in with David creating the alien. Just asspull timetraveling to explain any inconsistencies on movies or EU. Yay.

    Besides Newt and Ripley died. Its wouldn't be just time travel but alternative timelines as well. At least this didn't happen.
  24. Samhain13
    QuoteWe shot a version where Ripley was in the cocoon and we shot one where Newt from "Aliens" was in the cocoon. Sigourney didn't want to clear any future for Ripley in the franchise and ultimately I don't think anybody remembers Newt well enough for that to have meant anything..

    Not to mention how absurd it is for characters that died on 2179 to be somehow alive on 2018. But then again I shouldn't expect those that wrote The Predator to realize this on their own.
  25. SM
    QuoteOh, yes, no one remember Newt, because Aliens was released in 1986 - this is such an old film. No one is watching this today.

    The deleted scene said 'Rebecca Jorden'.  A handful of people would pick that up and the rest of your audience is going to go "What?"
  26. happypred
    "Maybe we should move in. So the premise of the movie is that in the third act was these two predators come aboard the ship and everybody's freaking out and the predators actually want to communicate. They want to say, "Hey, we've got a problem, you have a problem. Maybe we should team up."

    Sounds like an absolute shit premise
  27. Nameless_1
    I guess Dekker is still blaming anyone but himself for the way the film turned out, be it "toxic fans" or the studio. Never mind the terrible script he and Black wrote that was overwhelmingly laughed at when it was leaked.

    Never mind that the finished product is no better than what their original vision was. Never mind that they de-mystified the Yautja and changed their entire reason for hunting and taking trophies, a move that goes directly against established expanded lore.

    Even if for some reason the Predator Homeworld was dying, Black and Dekker seem to have completely forgotten about the Game Preserve planet established in Predator 3, which would easily be able to support them.

    Black and Decker just don't seem to have done their research or if they did they didn't care about continuity or skilled writing. They might as well have had D&D do it for them.
  28. Mykingdom4aname
    I was shocked when I read the script that was leaked. I thought Shane Black was supposed to be some kind of script writing wunderkind. The script was just awful, forget about the changes made to the lore, it was just a terrible script. The scene where the general was explaining the "emmisary" Preds...sounded like some 16 year old Predator fanboy trying to argue why his oc Predator should be the star of the next movie.

    "Ok...they're, like, the good Predators, but they're still Predators man, so they're like still super badasses and kill prople and shit. It's, like, all morally GREY and shit, bro! Like Game of Thrones, bro!"

    Only instead of calling the guy a moron Fox gave him 88 million dollars to film his fanfic.
« Newer Comments 12 Older Comments »
AvPGalaxy: About | Contact | Cookie Policy | Manage Cookie Settings | Privacy Policy | Legal Info
Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Patreon RSS Feed
Contact: General Queries | Submit News