We have just uploaded the 121st episode of the Alien vs. Predator Galaxy Podcast (right-click and save as to download)! And we’re starting 2021 off with a bang! For our 121st episode Corporal Hicks and Voodoo Magic are joined by none other than Predator 2’s director, Stephen Hopkins!
Stephen talks about his experience as a newer director working on Predator 2, how the film would have differed had Arnie been involved, where exactly Peter Keyes torso went, the legendary NC-17 cut of the film and plenty more!
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And if you’d rather see our beautiful faces, the video version of the podcast is also available on YouTube!
There appears to be some issues with Hicks video feed being out of sync with the sound, but everyone else seems fine. And if you’d rather read the interview there’s also a transcription available in our interviews section too!
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Something else. Hopkins said he did some full color paintings featuring the Predator and Harrigan to help conceptualize it!
Thanks brother!
And so much this. After the interview I asked exactly that! Maybe just maybe in the Predator Archive book if we're lucky!
Haha. I'm still holding out hope on getting there someday. But 2021 is not off to a good start for me booking guests so...
Thanks, D. We really do try with this! And completely agree on Predator 2 getting attention. I'd go as far as to say Predator over all doesn't really get that kind of attention it deserves.
No, that was a surprise to me too! Hopefully we'll get that release at some point when normalcy returns.
I've not come across it myself either. Be worth having a look into, I think!
I asked him about it after the fact - not sure how neither of us thought to ask this one!
He said:
He really was such a chill guy. And so many people are commenting on it. I'm glad everyone seems to be enjoying this episode!
No disagreement there...
Oh man, I'd love to speak to the Thomas Brothers. But they've absolutely no presence online, or contact. We'd have to rely on networking there. But hopefully some day...
I'd love to see that NC17 cut too! It was something I suggested to Fox when we had active contact with the guys running the license over there. Whether or not they found anything, I don't know. It just depends if that original footage still exists.
Yep, this was same insert you could find in a few magazines, but more miniature due to the size of a comic. Smaller, yet still just as cool! Thanks again for the tip H-K!
https://i.ibb.co/rc55k5G/20210115-100548.jpg
Could be... We know the ship is organic but it doesn't mean that antechamber ceiling piece is. I'd be pretty certain the hieroglyphics aren't organic, but scribed afterwards by the Predators.
My only issue personally with the map idea is with the pupil/black circle in the center of the proposed map. Unless that represents a volcano or something, or a result of architecture. But hey, that's just me! No assumption is wrong (which is cool!)
From your lips to the Predator gods ears! Yes please!
They were planning a 70mm Predator 2 re-release, which not only meant a gorgeous print but more screen to see on the left and right of the frame considering they often used wide 70mm cameras! It sounds like it's already in the can, so hopefully we can see it one day....
Navigation? Wow.
If I recall correctly, in the shooting script, they had a few more spear tips / darts flying around than we saw on film, but the shooting script never detailed the event leading to stray spear tip. So I assume nothing was filmed to detail that event. It's just an assumed result of a deflection/ricochet during the mayhem of the slaughter!
I always thought we missed some action there, maybe some rudeboyz were hiding in the hallway and they busted in...
Finding out that the predator head being around 45-50 lbs! Damm dude, I have a tough time curling those lbs for my workout sessions, can't imagine that weight on the head, that neck must be sore as hell after work.
Speaking of the head, that WTF face just brings out the human eyes on it, like it almost justifies how the AVP predator heads look like.
quote author=Fiendishly Inventive link=topic=64633.msg2502174#msg2502174 date=1610561086]
Anyone suggested it's possibly a continent?
Perhaps the Predators come from a world with only one.
A reminder of home.
[/quote]
Now that sounds cool! I just want to see the return of that architectural design for future Predator ships.
Perhaps the Predators come from a world with only one.
A reminder of home.
https://media1.tenor.com/images/2635f78984cf6dafd40c230e47c38fc6/tenor.gif
Indeed! I only wish we could see his Dark Tower pilot.
Thanks BB. Much appreciated! Hicks is a machine when it comes to getting all this great content out!
Ah, yeah. It does have that stretched skin look doesn't it? That's cool Man, do I wish designer Larry Paull was alive and available to answer these questions. I personally went with some sort of eye because we know the ship is organic and Peter Levy simulated a heartbeat and breathing with his lighting to feel like Harrigan was in something living. Hopkins angle in the podcast was indeed biomechanical and perhaps built from something like an old gigantic turtoise shell, but then he also suggested possibly grown? I think only Larry Paull could nail this all down. R.I.P. Ah, heck, maybe it's better if we don't have the answers like the Space Jockey pre the Alien prequels.
https://i.ibb.co/7Gsh8nj/IMG-20150810-163538-14.png
That gave us the hilarious close up of his "WTF??" face though
What bothers me more is that how choping off CH supposed to stop that
Voodoo, I always took that as stretched skin over a light on the ceiling of the lost ship.
Me too ! Would love to see the extra gore effects for the torso !
Thanks brother. Hopkins really couldn't have been any nicer.
I'm familiar with the movie promo insert but not being in Spell Jammer #4. I ordered a copy yesterday just in case it's different from the ones I've seen. And you're right, it was cheap! Thanks for sharing this info H-K! You da man!! 👍
Aw man, the Thomas Bros? From your lips to the Predator Gods' ears brother! We have to find the mountainous cave they're hiding in first!
Thanks so much Marc. And even if we got just a peek, like a still photograph of Keyes' upper torso, it would still be such a treat!
Really appreciate all you've done, a great source of new information about the film and some myths busted, too!
One thing I would say though, I still would like to see those shards of frames that were cut. Even if they added barely a second or two per scene, that extra hint of gore or the Predator at work would have been a treat.
I will look forward to this if it ever happens.
Wonderful interview! You guys are doing a fantastic job with this site.
I am grateful for avpgalaxy! the best fansite ever!
FYI, for any comic nerds out there, I recently came across a sword and sorcery series called "spell jammer," and if you can find issue 4 which came out December 1990, there's a killer Predator 2 movie promo that you can tear out, it's double-sided and probably around 8x14 inches, with the movie poster advertisement on one side and a predator 2 weapons loadout on the other. I paid $1.50 for the comic.
Cheers
Thanks Xeno Hunter. And indeed, very down-to-eath and very enthusiastic. He was just a wonderful pleasure to have on!
Hopkins and Thomas Brothers are definitely on the bucket list my friend.
Thanks Kailem!
I practiced before the interview...
https://media1.giphy.com/media/ae0xmwpjVglnG/200.gif
To compose something so majestic, one could die happy. If one dies
It's great to finally have some answers about some of the biggest Predator 2 rumours/urban legends that have cropped up over the years, especially the general outline of what the movie would have been if Dutch had been involved. As soon as he mentioned that Joel Silver had produced 48 Hours it all clicked into place. That definitely would have been cool to see, though I do think the lack of Dutch helped "free" the franchise from being too dependant on any particular characters, and the movie turned out great as it is.
And yeah, finally the mystery of Keyes' torso is solved! The MPAA swooped in and grabbed it before it could hit the ground! Interesting to hear he was offered Alien 3 as well, though given his reasoning I totally get why he turned it down. Still, it's always fun to hear about any sort of "road not taken" stories when it comes to movies, so that was a cool tidbit too.
That was indeed a very cool listen!
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Predator 2 AND Aliens?
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When did they say that on the commentary? I don't have a recollection of that. It didn't happen during the halving of Keyes...
We didn't discuss it but agreed, Hopkins has a perfect perception of it.
Yeah, I was never personally subscribed to it but I do feel bad for the people who did. I would imagine it was a fun holy grail to chase, now extinguished.
Frames of graphic violence rather than whole scenes were cut?
That probably explains why sweet F.A. deleted scenes appeared on the home video releases.
Is Mr. Hopkins aware of the new predator movie being worked on .? When he talked about the hunter he met who had his fingers bitten off by a bear, I thought of the timeline the new movies takes place. He seemed to really understand the charactor as a hunter and warrior .
Yep. No scenes were cut. It all grew to a big urban legend.
Just read what Stephen Hopkins said, courtesy of the absolute awesome job Darkness did transcribing the interview! 👏
Because I'd had a run in with them and Joel constantly, they wanted to make a bit of an example. At one point it was thought "Well maybe we should just go with the NC17. Maybe that would be huge. The first time anyone had done it." But there's all the repercussions like not being advertised in newspapers and this is obviously before the internet. So it was really a choice that the studio wasn't willing to make. In the end, actually, it was more to do with political conversations I think as well as tiny cuts and some of the nudity in the Jamaican scene with Teri Weigel and hanging shots too long. It was really that kind of boring stuff that you could cut out.
They didn't cause us to cut any scenes out of the film. It was just sort of trying to whiz by things."
No. Never filmed. There was no such scene in the Shooting Script to film. It goes from "El Scorpio is ready", to glass shattering & battle noises, to "Sarge, any of your people in the building?"
So when the Colombians were getting killed in the beginning that scene was never filmed?
I wouldn't say a cut "scene", but perhaps an uncamouflaged moment during the Want Some Candy/Danny Necklace scene. However they did create some camouflage moments with Stan's suit versus just the traditional red suit.
Aye indeed!