John Davis is out of the picture.

[skull-splitter]

Eh, no, it wasn't.

It was a B-film, got a B-film treatment, and when the suit finally came, it was a C-quality suit. They shot some footage with the suit, sent it back to the studio, along with the suit and the studio thought it was wise to shelve the film for a year or so.

In the meanwhile, Arnold was stuck with this semi finished film (most of it was done, only the SFX shots were to be recorded and the confrontation between creature and other characters) of which he DID love the concept, so he suggested talking to Winston.

Winston jumped in, and while marketing the Terminator, he and his team developed the Predator in about 6 weeks. (Eat that, ADI! Bitching about 3 months! ) and it instantly fit the film.

Daily's were sent to the studios, they liked the new look of the creature and finally allowed a raised budget for effects and marketing.

[DoomRulz]

The had a cast full of known actors, had an established director, a well-known suit designer, and had a known musical composer. It was A list.

[PHANTOM]

It was a B-film, got a B-film treatment

It was a B-movie concept with the whole US army special forces taking on an trophy hunter alien from outer space

BUT!

It was given the A-film treatment that it still deserved and needed. There for the final product of the film is quite up there with the big boys of film-making history

[Pvt. Hicks]

But helped create Predator 

But helped destroy Predator.

[Sgt.Torque Reikan]

But helped destroy Predator.

And then some

[DoomRulz]

But helped destroy Predator.

..how? With AvP:R? That has no bearing on the actual Predator franchise because it's a separate series. By the same token, you could say Fincher and Jeunet helped ruin the Alien with their movies.

[skull-splitter]

The had a cast full of known actors, had an established director, a well-known suit designer, and had a known musical composer. It was A list.

They had Arnold who had only done a few films before and only gained popularity after the Terminator was released (mind you, about 80% of Predator was already shot when Terminator released), they had Carl Weathers who has been acting a great deal but never quite top of the bill, they hired an ex pornstar who had bodyguards protecting the people around him, the director only filmed Nomads before (does anyone even remember that one? I sure as shit don't.) and both the suit designer and composer where only attatched after the first creature was back in the crate and Arnold suggested to rethink it.

Now where is the A status from the start up?

[Xhan]

Arnold was already box office gold by then, and the hype for this movie was HUGE, which is why it got retooled at all. It was going to be ALIENS all over again for Fox the next year, and that's exactly what happened. Arnold's first stop on his publicity tour for the movie was freaking Oprah. Everyone knew it was going to be a big deal, and like ALIENS it made a shit ton of money (100M v 18M) versus the cost (especially in light of it being sci fi without the names Lucas or Spielberg being attached to it), and allowed Arnold to start dictating fees on his terms.

[skull-splitter]

I know what you're talking about, all I'm saying is, all that buzz got up to steam AFTER the one year break in filming.