Dan Trachtenberg Talks Amber Midthunder's Casting, French Fur Trappers and No Plasma Casters

Started by Corporal Hicks, Jun 12, 2022, 11:38:18 AM

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Dan Trachtenberg Talks Amber Midthunder's Casting, French Fur Trappers and No Plasma Casters (Read 13,300 times)

GreybackElder

Quote from: Lefty on Jun 13, 2022, 02:09:08 PMI dig it because I always prefer them using blades, anyway. It's just so brutal to imagine those wrist blades going into you. Although I hope it isn't played off as "they haven't invented the plasma casters yet" or anything that limits the predator world building. They don't all have to use one, I imagine they select their preferred gear before a hunt, and this one might just prefer to go without it.

Blades, spears and nets ftw. I'd love to see something akin to Greyback's "alien machete" getting some use, too.

If you look at some of the scenes, there appears to be a hilt of some kind on Ol' Feral's back. Possibly a machete or sword of some kind.

The Shuriken

Quote from: GreybackElder on Jun 12, 2022, 05:36:44 PMThe more and more I hear about this the more it seems like Dan Trachtenberg understands what it takes to make a good Predator film.

I also approve of the idea of Feral not having a plasmacaster. It just seems so unfair against humans in the 1700s.

It's not really fair against anything honestly. Be it in 1987 or 1719. There's also the unfairness of being completely invisible and ambushing your target. The whole unfairness reason for ditching the plasma caster doesn't pass the smell test for me.

Kailem

Yeah I get wanting to stick to "less advanced" weaponry by and large for this film's Pred since it's going be be set in a more primitive era, but I completely agree that the plasma caster is no less of an insta-win back then than in any of the other modern day movies we've seen it used in. You could one-to-one swap it for that speargun/bow weapon we see used in the trailer and the outcome there (Naru saving that one guy when she sees the targeting laser) would be exactly the same.

And you could still easily make it work just by showing that this Predator doesn't always want to use it, the same way City Hunter only used his a very few times throughout the course of the film.

But regardless, as long as they don't try to imply that they just haven't invented plasma casters yet (which I'm not sure how the movie could, same as how I can't really see any way they could explicitly state that this was the Predator's first time on Earth) then it's cool. It's going to be different seeing one that doesn't use one for the first time in a film, but it fits with the more "primitive" look of this new Predator, and potentially gives us a little more character to him that this one's choosing to forgo that particular weapon.

BlueMarsalis79

Yeah I think you all sound crazy for discussing something Dan Trachtenberg did not say personally, he never said it's more deadly in the past than in 1987 or 2022 or somehow more fair, but he's completely right in that it is an instant win button potentially whereas a bow requires a arrow to function for a start but as he said the Predator still keeps it's advantage.

A plasma caster though has only the restrictions of imagination.

Mornstar

Trachtenberg remembers exactly how he first encountered the Predator story – and like many of us, it was at a much younger age than its 18-rating would suggest...

"Predator came out when I was in third grade. I was not allowed to see it, and rightfully so! But I was in the van on the way to a karate tournament with a bunch of sixth graders. And they described the entire movie to me, including a beat where Billy, the Native American scout (Sonny Landham), carved into his own chest and fought the predator on a waterfall. And then I saw the movie, and that scene is not really in it! But that always captured my imagination. I always wanted to see that movie, you know. And that is also a part of the genesis of this."
Focusing on Native American hunters as the ideal counterpoint to the extraterrestrial menace was something that Trachtenberg had in mind from the start.

"That was my initial pitch to Fox [before it was purchased by Disney], the notion of how cool it would be to make a movie that focuses on a Native American story, to make a Western that has no cowboys in it," says Trachtenberg. "That's a movie which really does not exist. It shockingly doesn't. And I just I wanted to make a movie that would be told primarily visually and through action."

Which brought up a challenge for the filmmaker. "How do you engage in a very economical way, and still tell an emotional story? I'm not an athlete in any way, I do not follow sports, but I love sports movies, primarily because they feel like action movies that you don't need laser guns for. But they always feel warm and hopeful, you know. And so, I thought, 'if I could have the engine of a sports movie, tell a real underdog story inside this action movie, it could feel really gripping and moving.' Part and parcel with that underdog story was, 'what if we make it about someone, and a people that also, in media, are the underdog? Who are the people that never have a light shined on them?'"
https://www.empireonline.com/movies/news/prey-trailer-breakdown-director-dan-trachtenberg-on-thwarting-expectations-generating-suspense-and-targeting-new-characters/

Kailem

Quote from: BlueMarsalis79 on Jun 13, 2022, 04:14:22 PMYeah I think you all sound crazy for discussing something Dan Trachtenberg did not say personally, he never said it's more deadly in the past than in 1987 or 2022 or somehow more fair, but he's completely right in that it is an instant win button potentially whereas a bow requires a arrow to function for a start but as he said the Predator still keeps it's advantage.

A plasma caster though has only the restrictions of imagination.

How is a bow any different to a plasma caster though? The one scene where we've seen the Predator firing a projectile weapon plays out identically to if it had fired a bolt of plasma. I'm not really seeing much difference there other than cosmetics.

BlueMarsalis79

Restrictions force creative solutions, a made up weapon has none, a real one if you consider vermisilitude important has many.

Kailem

He doesn't say anywhere that this Predator is going to be using a bow though, let alone a bow that functions the same as the ones humans use (for all we know it could be another shoulder-mounted, auto-targeting weapon that just shoots small spears rather than plasma bolts), so I don't see how that applies here either.

BlueMarsalis79

Even an arrow head or spear has more real world relativity than plasma that can do whatever the writer requires.

Lefty

Yeah I mean, then plasma caster is an advantage no matter what time period the predator hunts in. It would ruin an Alien Queen's day IMMEDIATELY. A predator with a functioning plasma caster seems only outmatched if he acts stupidly, is horribly outnumbered, or just doesn't see the threat coming.

Also yes, I've been hoping that the thing protruding off Feral's back turns out to be a brutal machete type weapon ever since we got the teaser poster  ;D

Kailem

Quote from: BlueMarsalis79 on Jun 13, 2022, 04:49:59 PMEven an arrow head or spear has more real world relativity than plasma that can do whatever the writer requires.

Oh yeah, whatever/however that weapon is used it'll be a good fit visually with the world of this film, and it should fit well with this more primitive-looking Pred. I've just never bought into the idea (which was floated on here when this movie was first revealed) that Predators can't/shouldn't use plasma casters once they get beyond a certain point in history for some reason.

BlueMarsalis79

Quote from: Lefty on Jun 13, 2022, 04:50:19 PMYeah I mean, then plasma caster is an advantage no matter what time period the predator hunts in. It would ruin an Alien Queen's day IMMEDIATELY. A predator with a functioning plasma caster seems only outmatched if he acts stupidly, is horribly outnumbered, or just doesn't see the threat coming.

Also yes, I've been hoping that the thing protruding off Feral's back turns out to be a brutal machete type weapon ever since we got the teaser poster  ;D

You're right it is, and again I don't believe anyone's said otherwise, certainly not the director.

I'd love a sword, or machete, but part of me expects perhaps an Atlatl considering the theme of the film.

Quote from: Kailem on Jun 13, 2022, 05:11:18 PM
Quote from: BlueMarsalis79 on Jun 13, 2022, 04:49:59 PMEven an arrow head or spear has more real world relativity than plasma that can do whatever the writer requires.

Oh yeah, whatever/however that weapon is used it'll be a good fit visually with the world of this film, and it should fit well with this more primitive-looking Pred. I've just never bought into the idea (which was floated on here when this movie was first revealed) that Predators can't/shouldn't use plasma casters once they get beyond a certain point in history for some reason.

Oh yeah it's absolute nonsense but I don't think that's what Dan Trachtenberg was putting across.

SiL

Quote from: BlueMarsalis79 on Jun 13, 2022, 04:49:59 PMEven an arrow head or spear has more real world relativity than plasma that can do whatever the writer requires.
Predator spears also do whatever the writer requires.

SuperiorIronman

Cool thought that maybe we get a shot like Broken Tusk where Feral briefly considers the armament but chooses something else.

BlueMarsalis79

BlueMarsalis79

#59
You can say that about nearly anything in a script, that's saying the obvious, you know that's why I used the phrase "more relativity" as well.

As for gearing up, I certainly hope not, I'd rather stay with the story.

And not be reminded of AVP or AVPR.

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