Producer John Davis - “it needs to rest for a couple of years”

[Keyes]

Exclusive: Producer John Davis Talks About the PREDATOR Franchise, Potential Sequels, Reveals What Stopped Schwarzenegger from Doing PREDATOR 2

A few days ago I sat down with producer John Davis for an extended interview.  While the main purpose of our sit down was to talk about his new family film, Mr. Popper's Penguins, starring Jim Carrey, we also covered his early career, his thoughts on VOD, his relationship with Eddie Murphy, what he has coming up, and many other subjects.  Since the conversation was so wide ranging, I'm breaking it up into smaller parts, like I did with my interviews with producers Dan Lin and Neal Moritz.

While I debated what to post first, I'm going with Predator.  Davis served as a producer on every Predator film including the two Alien vs. Predator movies. As a big fan of what producer Robert Rodriguez and director Nimrod Antal did last year on Predators, I was curious if we'd get a sequel, and what was up with the franchise.  Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like anything is happening right now.  However, I did learn that Schwarzenegger almost did Predator 2 and the deal broke down over $250,000.  Hit the jump for more.

Predators-movie-imageThe big news for fans of the franchise is that nothing is brewing right now.  Davis said that even though all the Predators movies make money, "it needs to rest for a couple of years."  He went on to say that it's all about finding new ways to reinvent the franchise.  He went on to say:

    "I can't see why if we can't be clever we can't reinvent it again."

However, while another sequel/reboot might be somewhere down the road, I learned an interesting fact from the past.  According to Davis, Schwarzenegger almost made Predator 2 and "the deal broke down over $250,000."  With how much money Schwarzenegger makes, it crazy to think such a small number kept him out of the sequel.  However, back in 1990, Schwarzenegger made Total Recall and if he had agreed to be in Predator 2, perhaps one of his best roles would have never happened.

Here's the part of my conversation with Davis about the Predator franchise.  Look for more with Davis tomorrow or Wednesday.

Collider: You started with Predator and I really dug the reboot you did with Robert Rodriguez.  How successful was that for the studio in terms of maybe making another one?

John Davis:  You know, those Predator movies...Tom Rothman said this to me, "Man, they all seem to make money."  I get a big check every year on my net points off of the original Predator.  You know how hard it is to get net points on a studio movie, right?  It was hugely profitable.  It far exceeded its revenue on DVD than in theaters by three or four times.

You're talking about the original, right?

Davis:  Yes.  I talked to Arnold about rebooting Predator and doing something in terms of that.  I think in terms of right now, it needs to rest for a couple of years.  I can't see why if we can't be clever we can't reinvent it again.

I actually really dug it.  I thought Rodriguez did a great job with it.

Davis:  Yeah.  It was really fun.

It was really good.  That's why as a fan I'd love to see another one.

Davis:   Yeah.  He changed the setting.  He put it on another planet.  You have to keep changing the setting.  You have to find a clever way to do it.  If we were going to do it with Arnold; it was like, "Does it make sense to go back and to put him with a young team?"  So maybe it's 20 years later, you have retired, and you are the one person who has survived one of these encounters.  Is that a reboot in the fact that you are in it with a group of young guys?  Is that a reboot?  You just have to figure out a way to reboot it.  Rodriguez rebooted it.  It's all in the planet.  The sequel to the first one rebooted it.  We should've had Arnold in the movie.  The deal broke down over $250,000, which is a shame.  But it was moved from the jungle to the city.  You have to create a freshness about it.  When we did Alien vs. Predator we kind of rebooted it because we put the two pieces together.  You just have to give it enough time to come up with a new freshness.  It is what they did so brilliantly with Fast Five.

http://collider.com/john-davis-interview-predator-predators-sequel/94895/

[Ratchetcomand]

They could have Arnold for a Predators sequel. We don't need to start over again since Predators was a great and find how it was.

[AliceApocalypse]

Exclusive: Producer John Davis Talks About the PREDATOR Franchise, Potential Sequels, Reveals What Stopped Schwarzenegger from Doing PREDATOR 2

  Yeah.  He changed the setting.  He put it on another planet.  You have to keep changing the setting.  You have to find a clever way to do it.  If we were going to do it with Arnold; it was like, "Does it make sense to go back and to put him with a young team?"  So maybe it's 20 years later, you have retired, and you are the one person who has survived one of these encounters.  Is that a reboot in the fact that you are in it with a group of young guys?  Is that a reboot?  You just have to figure out a way to reboot it.  Rodriguez rebooted it. b]

http://collider.com/john-davis-interview-predator-predators-sequel/94895/

Sounds like the "Heartbreak Ridge" of Predators lol.  I'm all in for an veteran cast member.

[Spidey3121]

Doesn't really seem overly news worthy. I would be concerned with how many times he used the word "reboot" but it seems he considered every film other than the original to be a "reboot" of sorts. It is interesting to note that the original Predator continues to turn a profit but i suppose it isn't all that surprising. As for the reason Arnold refused to return for Predator 2 being 250,000 that seems a little sketchy. Apart from he dislike of setting it in the city i always thought conflicting schedules with Total Recall and T2 were what derailed his involvement. If it truly was only a quarter million FOX really dropped the ball. Although honestly i can't believe they wouldn't have given him that. As for letting the franchise rest a few years i always figured it'd be some time before we saw the "confirmed" sequel to Predators. They really ought to not way too long though, maybe 2014?

[RDdaNINJA]

A few years!?  NOOOOOOO!!!!

[jimmylace]

It doesn't need to rest at all, we need Predators 2. I wanna find out how Royce gets off the hunting planet. I'm happy for him to meed Arnold on the way.

I mean seriously, what is up with this  Davis guy? Forces Paul Anderson and the Strause Brothers on one of the best movie crossover ideas ever, insists on Earth. Top it all off, denying us a sequel to Rodriguezs Predators...the only director to "get it" since the first one.

This news blows. Hopefully Rodriguez pushes for a Predators sequel.

[SpaceMarines]

So maybe it's 20 years later, you have retired, and you are the one person who has survived one of these encounters.

'Cept for Glover.

[Chris!(($$))!]

I wanna find out how Royce gets off the hunting planet.

That would be a slightly bad idea.
Even though I am mainly a ALIENS fan I still want to see another Predator movie cause I like them too.
BUT already people complain that PREDATORS was too much like PREDATOR.
At the end of Predators we see more boxes (of people/other animals?) being dropped down for the next hunt.
So therefore, Royce would get to them they would all team up and its PREDATORS all over again except maybe this time they get off the planet instead of it blowing up.

[DoomRulz]

Never thought I'd say it, but Davis sounds like he has his head screwed on straight.

[Ratchetcomand]

I thought John Davis was done with the series after AVPR was a failure. He should go back to working on his Sims movie.

[G8RSG1]

Wait, I thought a sequel to Predators was already confirmed?

[CainsSon]

I love the first PREDATOR, and PREDATORS was Ok. Past the 2nd act, it gets sloppy I think but, even though I'm indifferent to the series, it seems like they have wasted a lot of opportunities to elaborate on the mythology of the monster.
What works most about PREDATOR is the idea that an alien species hunts humans. So, it seems logical that the expansion should somehow stick with that theme but also bring it together. PREDATORS varied it, but it didn't go anywhere. They spend too much time worrying about cool weapons and new armour and not enough on elaborating on the concept. If it continues from PREDATORS, the logical step to me would be to have Royce stow-away on a PREDATOR ship and get back to their homeworld, and then have conditions on that planet give humans an advantage over the PREDS in the hunt, and have him hunting some other less advanced race of Predators, so the roles are reversed and then maybe add Predators trying to hunt him down as well. Sort of like BLADE RUNNER meets PREDATOR on the PRED homeworld, with a twist, where human biology gives us an advantage, similar to the way the Pred tech gives the Pred an advantage on Earth-like environments.

[Master]

Maybe you are indifferent to Predator franchise, but not all of us are so please stop posting such shit because someone will hear you by accident and we will have "Royce the predaturd slayer on predaturds planetz!!!!!!!1111111lolz!!!1!!".

[Rich Green Acid Blood]

I love the first PREDATOR, and PREDATORS was Ok. Past the 2nd act, it gets sloppy I think but, even though I'm indifferent to the series, it seems like they have wasted a lot of opportunities to elaborate on the mythology of the monster.
What works most about PREDATOR is the idea that an alien species hunts humans. So, it seems logical that the expansion should somehow stick with that theme but also bring it together. PREDATORS varied it, but it didn't go anywhere. They spend too much time worrying about cool weapons and new armour and not enough on elaborating on the concept. If it continues from PREDATORS, the logical step to me would be to have Royce stow-away on a PREDATOR ship and get back to their homeworld, and then have conditions on that planet give humans an advantage over the PREDS in the hunt, and have him hunting some other less advanced race of Predators, so the roles are reversed and then maybe add Predators trying to hunt him down as well. Sort of like BLADE RUNNER meets PREDATOR on the PRED homeworld, with a twist, where human biology gives us an advantage, similar to the way the Pred tech gives the Pred an advantage on Earth-like environments.

I agree. More mythology=better storytelling. It allows the viewer to become more immersed in the film because they're being introduced to a whole new species and way of life; the audience can see where the Predators are coming from. A rich mythology also keeps the audience engaged because we get to believing that there is a culture here that extends far deeper than just killing for the sake of being a badass killer.

Btw, I think we'll see a new Predators film by 2013. The summer following Prometheus.

[DaddyYautja]

"it needs to rest for a couple of years"

Given that since AVP we gotten a movie every 3 years...... i think he actually means 2 years...

"Yeah.  He changed the setting.  He put it on another planet. "
Yeah but outside of the shot with the different moons..... the other planet was no different than anything seen on earth. In fact, you can cut out that shot and change a couple of lines and that movie would not miss a step.

And yeah he does say reboot a whole lot. It seems like he is using the words to replace another instead of using it for the actual meaning. Them Hollywood folks with the "soft-reboot, re-imagining, etc" sure like to come up with terms to confuse people on what is actually being done.  I guess the word remake is a negative now when half of the film coming out of there are IN FACT remakes.