Shane Black Discusses THE PREDATOR and How It Was Inspired By IRON MAN 3, LOGAN, and THE DARK KNIGHT

I know a lot of fans didn't care for that first trailer for The Predator. Regardless, I'm still excited for the movie and I hope that Shane Black ends up giving us a great movie that we'll love. 

During a recent set visit, Collider learned a few new things about the film and that includes information on the other movies that helped inspire it. Shane Black explains that he found inspiration in films such as Iron Man 3, Logan, and The Dark Knight.

It's developing films like Lethal Weapon, The Last Boy Scout, and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, that landed him the Iron man 3 directing gig at Marvel and it was there he learned some new things about collaboration and infecting new ideas into a film while shooting. He incorporated these things while shooting The Predator: 

"On Iron Man, Downey would be like, ‘Time!’ and I’d be like, ‘We’re shooting!’ and he’d be, ‘No, shut the cameras,’ and we’d go back to the trailer and we’d all write because he wanted new lines. I mean, maybe it’s a little bit of that. Maybe I took a lesson from him. We’ve had a great deal of fun incorporating input from talented people who haven’t been looking at the same pages for two years."

I could see how that could make the filmmaking process more fun and collaborative. Hopefully, the things that came out of that kind of stuff ended up adding good things to the movie! He certainly had a great cast to work that includes Thomas Jane, Keegan-Michael Key, Sterling K. Brown and more. I'm sure they all offered some solid input.

He then goes on to explain how The Predator is like Logan, explaining:

"It wasn’t just an action movie, I thought. I think Logan’s actually not a bad model in terms of the time spent offering you satisfying action, but also visceral action and then also spending time on a surprising character piece. Y’know, if we can do half their business I’d be thrilled."

Watching great action sequences is always great, but focusing on the story and character development is so much more important. That's what made Logan so damn good. If Black can offer great character development and a great story, everything else will fall into place. So, it's good to know that he made a point to focus on those things like Logan did.

Actor Boyd Holbrook, who is taking on the lead role in the film, went on to share his thoughts on how The Predator is doing what The Dark Knight did when it comes to reinventing a franchise. 

"When people talk about reinventing, and I think Christopher Nolan is really the only person that’s really taken a franchise that people love and give it a complete freshness [with The Dark Knight], I think that’s what Shane is doing with this. Taking elements that already exist, pre-existing in the past franchise, and reinventing them."

This will include expanding on the franchise's mythology. Black adds:

"We just tried to take the existing mythology and take it a step further. Ask some questions about why. Why Predators do what they do? What would be the next step for them? How do we up the stakes so that there’s not just a single Predator hunting a group of soldiers? Who are the soldiers? How are they different? What’s the heroic quotient and how do you make it not just guys with tough talk and big arms?"

"It’s about the myth of alien incursion. It’s about watching the skies and basically just, guys who doubt themselves, who have skills, but don’t believe they’re truly capable of facing what they’ve been pitted against, and it’s the thrill of the hunt." 

If Shane Black can actually pull this off it would be awesome! I'd love to see another great Predator movie and I like what the filmmaker is saying here. This is the previously released synopsis:

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.

 The Predator lands in theaters on September 14th. What do you think about what Black had to say here about his upcoming movie?