We recently had the pleasure of speaking to Dan Trachtenberg, the director of the fantastic Prey, for the next episode of the Alien vs. Predator Galaxy Podcast. We discussed a lot about the creative process behind the film, and naturally we had to ask about deleted scenes and the biggest narrative changes that the film went through!
Dan revealed to us that while Prey didn’t undergo many significant changes to the plot, a major change took place between when he first pitched the film to 20th Century Fox and when Patrick Aison sat down to write the script.
The biggest change I will admit to you guys came from my pitch to the very first draft of the script, that I pitched them something and then in talking it over with Patrick when we first met, I realized, “oh, no,”. The pitch that I wrote to them was that it would be a younger Predator, a younger Yautja, and Naru and it would team up against Fur Trappers.
And I quickly realized, I think, even before I met Patrick, I was like, “wait, before we get started”, that the fun of the movie is David versus Goliath. By the way, I’m sure in that there would have been it’s the antagonist that then becomes the protagonist or whatever I was thinking of. I didn’t want to make it weaker. And that carries through even to the final iteration in the final fight…in the final fight in the 87 movie, in the original movie, the Predator disarms itself and evens the playing field for Arnold, which certainly does good in establishing the code of it, but it also gives Arnold fighting chance.
And I was really anxious to take these two adversaries and if we’re going to see someone defeat it, can she level the playing field for herself? Because it’s all an exercise. I don’t know about you guys, but I feel like Naru more than I feel like Arnold Schwarzenegger in life.
Hicks: It’s one of the things I said in my review as well. Naru’s journey is something everybody surely must have identified with at some point, this desire to prove yourself, to flip the bird to whoever is telling you, “no, you can’t do it.” It’s just pure and universal identifiability.
Yes, absolutely. And so making something like this is like an exercise in “could I do it?” And life doesn’t often level the playing field for so I just thought that was the exciting thing, was taking on this premise. So that’s when child went away and team up went away and was like, “no, the fun is, can she do it?”
Dan would also clarify that there was never a draft written where a team-up took place, and that though no major narrative changes took place, the film’s flow did undergo a significant change during the editing process. Be sure to check back in with Alien vs. Predator Galaxy on the 8th of October at 5pm GMT for the release of the full episode!
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and the team up is good in that.
ultimately all these ideas depend on execution.
I'm sure Dan would've executed it well.
Now that he got his David vs Goliath story out of his system, i'm sure there are still many ideas he'd like to explore if he chooses to return to the series.
Granted. I wasn't really giving my support to the idea, so much as I was offering suggestions as to how it could end up happening.
Feral could have gotten in over his head with the trappers and Naru somehow saves him, and gets some respect. I don't know.
It worked okay in the original AVP comic, and at the time that was a unique idea. It has not worked for me since then.
Predators, thankfully, did not have a team up. It just had a "Yeah, you cut me down. Now get out of here." Moment, which worked.
It the AVP movie it just came off as incredibly hokey. Everyone in the theater laughed.
It's a neat idea for them to "save" a target, but I think that requires a different script. You could even save that for any Prey sequel like she misunderstands Greyback's intentions if he comes off different to Feral. Or that if Greyback wants her, he'd go out of his way to rescue her just so he can have the kill for himself. There's some cool character stuff you can do with that but I do think it's for the best that's cut.
Wait didn't folk prefer the Predator/Pirate team up? Maybe the Predator/Comanche girl teamup would have been a good middle ground for them.
Mostly because he literally throws down his weapon and starts beating the shit out of him with his bare hands.
Not only does it feel like Commando, the beat down is even edited in a similar fashion.
That's probably clearest in the moment before Dutch drops the log on its head, where it chooses to loom over him for a while when it might have easily dispatched him many times over by that point. It all reflects the hubris they demonstrate as a species, which so often results in their downfall.
I've been watching a lot of younger people reacting to Alien and Predator for the first time on Youtube. It's very interesting to watch people with no real knowledge or experience with these characters be absolutely confused by JH's behavior in that scene. At least, initially.
It's... I don't think it's fair to say that wasn't what Jungle Hunter was thinking to a certain extent. He takes away his supreme advantage. Obviously Dutch has no weapons by that point. So in the strictest sense, he is "leveling the playing field" by taking off his ranged weapon.
...But, I've always read it more like... This little monkey gets a little respect... I'm going to savor this. Which is reinforced by the way he slowly stalks after Dutch when he's crawling away. Drawing out those final moments for as long as possible.
I'm glad that they didn't go with the team up. I will say, though, I think that explains why some of the stuff with the trappers seems just a smidge "off." Not anything big, but something did seem... a little strange there.