With the May release of The Nice Guys gradually approaching, writer/director Shane Black is starting to do the press rounds again, and in a recent interview he talked about his upcoming Predator movie.
Speaking with Thrillist (via Collider), Black discussed how Fox's willingness to really invest into The Predator as an "event status" film helped convince him to take the helm:
"They [Fox] said, "What if we said to you we want to reinvent this, and really treat it with as much of an event status, or as much hoopla as we would the Alien prequel, which is coming out also? We really want to make this something. The kind of movie that people line up for." I said, "Really, you'll spend a bunch of money?" They go, "Yep." I go, "Make it really scale, spectacle?" "Yep." "Shit, that sounds interesting."
Black, who played the wisecracking Rick Hawkins in John McTiernan’s original Predator movie, said that while the first film worked great as a generally contained movie, he'd like to expand the new film to an Iron Man 3-level scale (a movie he also directed):
"I think there's an expansion that needs to take place, and also just a love for that era, that movie, and the mythology of the Predator. I think that they came to me knowing pretty much that... they said, basically, if I wanted to make Predator but treat it like it was Iron Man III instead of just another little movie. I said, "Let's really do it right this time."
Fans hoping to see Arnold Schwarzenegger return as Dutch in The Predator will have to keep waiting for confirmation, as Black shared that the actor is "still in talks."
The Predator is slated for a March 2nd, 2018 release from 20th Century Fox. Plot details are unknown at this time, but the new film is expected to be more of a sequel than a reboot.
Black will direct from a screenplay he co-wrote with Fred Dekker (Night of the Creeps, The Monster Squad—a film also written with Black).
Throughout his filmmaking career, Black has delivered when it comes to character development and engrossing action. His directorial debut, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, has cemented itself as a must-see cult film, and Iron Man 3 made a big splash in the box office. Black’s next movie, the 1970s-set The Nice Guys, hits theaters on May 20th. Stay tuned to Daily Dead for more details on The Predator as they are revealed.
Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
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