Director Shane Black Offers Details on The Ultimate Predator's Abilities in THE PREDATOR
Shane Black's upcoming film The Predator will introduce fans to a whole new genetically enhanced Ultimate Predator. It's already been explained that the "universe’s most lethal hunters are stronger, smarter and deadlier than ever before, having genetically upgraded themselves with DNA from other species."
During a recent interview with EW, Black discussed the new Predator hunter and offered some additional details saying:
"If the [ultimate] predator was to be an amalgam of, not just an ordinary predator, but also a collection of traits garnered from the various most powerful species that they’ve hunted, then you basically would have one that is stronger, faster, and smarter. We finally got an image that we liked, which captures this very canny, very cunning, and effortlessly powerful, savage predator. One of the only quibbles that I’ve had with some of the past predators is that, if you’re not careful, it can look like a guy in a football suit; big, bulky guy just stomping around. I wanted a certain more graceful, more light, more athletic quality, literally like a predator. If you watch a cheetah, it’s not clunky."
That's good to hear. I can't wait to see more footage of it in action! The director went on to explain that the biggest challenge for bringing this predator to life was making it scary. He wants this predator to strike fear in the hearts of audiences. He told Empire:
“The challenge became to make it frightening. Cause upon that hinged everything — whether you bought our heroes going up against him and felt a real threat for them. We had to invent a scenario in which the Predators were mysterious and scary again."
I hope that they succeeded in that. The filmmaker is then asked to set the stage for the timeline of the film and talk about what’s the world like in relation to predators when The Predator picks up? His reply was:
"I think what has happened when this movie rolls around and opens is that for years, ever since medieval times if the comics are to be included, predators have been visiting Earth, and there have been incursions, but relatively isolated in ways that have managed to go under the radar or escaped notice or been disbelieved. This current one picks up where the visits from the predators are often enough that now people have actually noticed, to the extent that the military and scientific committee has actually put together a group whose job it is to monitor and keep track of this sort of phenomenon, a kind of watch the skies kind of program that is aware that something is out there that sometimes comes and is waiting for that next incursion, so that we can be prepared and jump on it as opposed to being surprised."
I really hope that this movie ends up kicking ass. I love what I've been seeing in the trailers and I just hope that the full film delivers something completely awesome that the fans will love and embrace.
The movie stars Boyd Holbrook (Narcos, Logan), Thomas Jane (The Punisher), Olivia Munn (X-Men: Apocalypse), Trevante Rhodes (Moonlight), Jacob Tremblay (Room), Yvonne Strahovski (Dexter), Alfie Allen (Game of Thrones), Sterling K. Brown (The People vs. O.J. Simpson, This is Us), Keegan-Michael Key, and Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica).
From the outer reaches of space to the small-town streets of suburbia, the hunt comes home in Shane Black’s explosive reinvention of the Predator series. Now, the universe’s most lethal hunters are stronger, smarter and deadlier than ever before, having genetically upgraded themselves with DNA from other species. When a young boy accidentally triggers their return to Earth, only a ragtag crew of ex-soldiers and a disgruntled science teacher can prevent the end of the human race.
Director Shane Black co-wrote the script with his Monster Squad co-writer Fred Dekker, and it will be released in theaters on September 14, 2018.