Prey is the on the cover of August’s issue of British film magazine SFX! The magazine spread contains interviews with director Dan Trachtenberg, actress Amber Midthunder and producer Jhane Myers. There’s also lots of brand new production stills in there from the Predator prequel including the most clear shot of the Feral Predator from behind. We get to see a detailed look at his weapons and equipment.
Trachtenberg talks about the foundations of the film, how the cast were put through a bootcamp, how to root it in first Predator but make it new. He says that Prey isn’t a prequel as such – it’s just set prior to Predator.
“I want to specifically say this, because I think there’s been some confusion how people have understood: in my mind, this is not a prequel movie, this isn’t, ‘Let’s tell the origin of the Predator.’ This is really something that’s set prior to the original Predator movie. And the Predator creature in this one, this is its first time travelling to Earth.”
The director mentions again what he wanted the Predator designs. It’s a blend of great practical effects and using CG for things that can’t be done with a man in a suit.
“The design for me, though incredible, functionally it’s always been very top-heavy,” he says. “The head has always been so large to accommodate a person inside, especially when it was developed in the ’80s. This is now the most refined, most proportional head to body ratio that’s ever been. We actually were able to get the silhouette to be a little bit more anatomically correct. Frankly, it’s the smallest, slimmest, I think, of the Predators, though still a hulking alien creature.”
Feral Predator
SFX also speak to actress Amber Midthunder who plays Naru. She talks about preparing for her role in Prey, and learning the Comanche language. There’s quite a few new production stills of Naru in the magazine. On her most memorable moment from filming:
Shooting the end of the film was kind of wild. We shot it for three days. We kept getting pieces of it at a certain time of night. It was just the bigness of it. And it was so early on in our shoot. It was in the second week or something. I think originally it had been like the first thing we were going to shoot, which is insane. That felt like such a big thing to do; doing that so early felt like one of the most ambitious undertakings.
Finally, SFX spoke to producer Jhane Myers and she mentions she has a cameo appearance in the film too:
There’s a scene where a woman is riding on a horse. And they’re like, “We don’t have anybody to ride and we need a woman, what are we going to do?” I was just sitting there and I’m like, “I’ll do it.” I put on the dress and everything. For me that’s memorable, because my future grandchildren, my future great grandchildren, can go back someday and watch this movie and be like, “That’s our grandmother in this film!”. It just shows, like our Comanche culture, we’re always ready, we have these skills, and when they need to be used, we just use them. So for me that was the most memorable moment.
It’s a very interesting read. There’s lots more information about Prey in there. You can buy a digital copy of the magazine from MagazinesDirect for £3.99 or a print copy for £5.50.
Here’s some of the new production stills:
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I get what you're saying, and yeah it actually does. Like the reverse of what we've seen before with it. That'd actually be pretty cool! Definitely a good way of getting the targeting laser to work with a non-auto targeting weapon, for sure!
I'm still not entirely sure how the targeting lasers are going to work with it since they're attached to the helmet as usual but this looks like it's going to be a hand-held weapon, but I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more of it in action!
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Maybe it's more like a predator version of a Native American Lance rather than a spear...
To elaborate, something using an atlatl.
It is possible that it is both a sword and a gun of some kind, since it has a trigger. The shape of the thing on it's back is very similar to Greyback's sword.
Also the 1700's timeline makes sense.
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Mate, it's a spear. It can be used in melee. This isn't a videogame.
I see the guy getting impaled while Naru hides in the burnt area as a spear. And we see one of the Comanche on horseback using one and it extends before he throws.
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Wristblades.
Topping the first two will be a tall order for me, but it's not even out yet and I already like it more than the other two and the AvPs.
Totally dig the athletic killing looks, makes complete sense for how it moves. The dreds add to the streamline killing machine. Proportions are perfect.
I like what they've done here, if they get the face right ( doesnt have to be the same but does have to look good) then this could be the best Predator Suit since the original.
It could well be flights - but it'd be one hell of a stumpy arrow if it were flights haha.
There's like a join midway down the shaft you can see on the main pic of him; and I think it's designed to be twisted and out pop the blades (?) for the mace.
I just think if they're calling him feral it has to be for a reason. Arrows/bolts/projectiles are for ranged kills and would be quite clean and not at all feral.
However a mace with a barbed blade at the heel would make for quite the visceral close quarters brutal melee weapon. Very feral indeed, IMO.
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Sorry. Couldn't help myself...
(One of the most famous publicity stills of the monster from FX magazines made the eye holes in the neck painfully obvious. Same thing here.)
One of the reasons I wasn't super fond of the bow in Hunting Grounds (as well as some of the other melee weapons) was that it felt a bit too "standard." So even though harpoon/spear guns are a thing that exists too, I think I'd prefer seeing some variation of something like that rather than a bow.
On the crossbow theory, I've done a quick markup of what could be the bow arms and how they fold out (if it is indeed some sort of crossbow pistol type thing). My biggest points against the idea is 1) where is he keeping the ammo and 2) where is the string? it would fold the opposite way of existing folding crossbows
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