Predator was the first movie and was a small, lean movie very akin to The Terminator. A director with one low-budget film under his belt, new writers, the guy from The Terminator, Conan and Commando, and that dude from the Rocky movies. That's all it was armed with. But this modest movie managed to make a profit. Quite a bit more than The Terminator, actually, only a mere two years later.
But you've gotta move on. You've gotta get bigger. You can't stagnant. Especially when you get someone like Shane Black(who just got done working with CROWE and GOSLING). The Nice Guys underperformed but the cachet the billion dollar movie Iron Man 3 afforded him is good enough to buoy him for one more swing of the bat, in my belief. Predator is a known quantity too, anyway. Good enough for, seemingly, at least $130mm at the box office. "Now imagine if it was actually good and an event movie!" posits Black and Dekker.
"Event movie". "Event movie". "Event movie." "We're gonna get a great cast." "Cooper, Bale, Affleck, Hardy, Franco, Ruffalo and Del Toro were offered the role."
Oh, okay. That's the kind of leading man we're going for? Well don't start filming until you manage to convince one of those guys or a guy of that caliber to star. Wait for a schedule opening, jack up their asking price, or persist.
Really stick the final puzzle piece in this puzzle by casting that A-lister. If an event movie is the goal then cast someone in accordance with that goal.