'Predator' sequel will 'reinvent' the franchise, says producer

Shane Black's forthcoming Predator sequel will 'reinvent a franchise', according to its producer John Davis.

The movie was announced last year with Kiss Kiss Bang Bang director Black set to helm the project. Precious few details have emerged since, but according to Davis, it's very much in the pipeline.

"Shane shot a movie and he’s doing a pilot now, but I’ve read a lot of his script and I think it's genius," asserted Davis who, as reported by Collider, answered questions on Predator at the Television Critics Association where he was discussing his new NBC series, The Player.

"I think it's genius and I think it’s entertaining, and what it did is recreate a famous franchise in a different, interesting way; looking at it from a different light. He's just an amazing writer-director. He’s got a way of looking at this that makes you excited again. I love this franchise. It was the first movie I ever did. I remember in being in the jungle with Arnold [Schwarzenegger] as a 28-year-old and going, 'This is a fun business!'…Shane's amazing. He's an amazing storyteller.

"Shane's got a writing partner, Fred Dekker. They've been doing it together and Fred’s great. The two of them together, they’ve been in the business for a long time, but the writing is so fresh, the perspective is so fresh. I’m telling you you’re going to get something you don’t expect and you’re going to say, ‘This is the most entertaining way to reinvent a franchise.’ I mean he’s the guy who wrote Iron Man 3."

Black's next release is forthcoming film The Nice Guys, a mystery thriller starring Ryan Gosling, Russell Crowe, Matt Bomer and Kim Basinger.

'Predator' Reboot Gets New Teaser Image



"Here we go again, bro."

With that comment — a quote from 1987's Predator, spoken by Mac Eliot (Bill Duke) — 20th Century Fox unveiled a teaser poster for Shane Black's upcoming revival of the science fiction monster franchise on Facebook this week, complete with a tagline that spoke to the surprise nature of the poster reveal: "You'll never see him coming."

(That the line mirrors an infamous line from Black's screenplay for Iron Man 3 is, presumably, a deliberate shoutout to the Marvel movie that heralded his return to the mainstream, or else a genuinely odd coincidence.)

Black has been attached to the revival of the sci-fi property since 2014, co-writing the project with Fred Dekker and attached to direct. According to Black, the movie is not a reboot per se, but instead "an inventive sequel" to earlier installments, with him telling Collider that he likes "the idea of expanding and exploring the existing Predator mythology, rather than hitting the restart button."

No release date or casting has been announced for the project yet, nor an official title — although the new image suggests a candidate for the latter: The Predator.

Black's latest project, The Nice Guys, will be released May 20.

Shane Black Is Looking to Ridley Scott For 'The Predator's' Inspiration

Pity 20th Century Fox's Predator — even when it comes to its solo revival, the extra terrestrial threat continues to be plagued by the studio's Alien franchise, with Shane Black revealing that an inspiration for his upcoming The Predator is none other than Alien and Prometheus director Ridley Scott.

Talking to IGN, the Nice Guys writer/director said that he was very conscious of Scott's relationship to the Alien franchise when it came to how he was approaching The Predator.

"How can I follow in the footsteps of someone who re-invents and brings that much event-ized quality to a pulp franchise?" he wondered aloud, continuing, "The worst thing you could hope for in one of these is a shot in bright sunlight of a field and the Predator just kind of walks on and 'hello' — you want to do... I keep going back to Ridley Scott, the way he captured the alien in that first movie. The sense of mystery and portent. If we could just cut into a little piece of that — that sort of vibe — and then I think there's humor to be had too. And tonal shifting."

Returning to the franchise three decades after its creation, Black said, is a joy. (Black was an actor in the 1987 original, playing radioman Rick Hawkins, dispatched early in the movie by the eponymous alien hunter.)

Co-written with Fred Dekker, The Predator is scheduled for a March 2, 2018 release.

Saw The Nice Guys a couple nights ago, and it's excellent.

I saw it today, and it was mucho entertaining. I'm just a "bird of a feather" with Shane Black's interests and sensibilities.

I encourage anyone who liked The Nice Guys to make sure and see Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005), his directorial debut. It is a very similar kind of movie to The Nice Guys.

Also, do not forget Black's masterful Iron Man 3, one of the best Marvel Studios movies.

Also, do not forget Black's masterful Iron Man 3, one of the best Marvel Studios movies.

To be fair, that may be because The Nice Guys was pretty overwhelmed in a sea of summer franchise chapters.

(and seriously, if you listen to the show, it really does sound like this) he genuinely forgot he directed Iron Man 3!

'Narcos' Star Boyd Holbrook in Talks to Replace Benicio Del Toro in Shane Black's 'Predator' Reboot.

Benicio Del Toro will no longer be hunting aliens, but Twentieth Century Fox is targeting a new hunter.

Del Toro has fallen out of negotiations with Fox to star in The Predator, the reboot of the alien action movie series that Shane Black is directing for the studio, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.

Details of the parting of ways were not revealed.

But Fox is not sitting idly and has already pinpointed its new lead: Boyd Holbrook, one of the stars of Netflix's drug cartel series Narcos.

While Holbrook does not have the star power Del Toro has, Fox is planning on beefing up the supporting cast. And the rising actor does have plenty of love and support from the studio itself: He has appeared in three Fox movies in the last two years, the latest one being Logan, the X-Men spinoff in which he is the movie’s villain. (Gone Girl and Morgan are the other two.)

Casting Del Toro in Predator was a challenge from the beginning. The actor and the studio danced for months around this project, with one obstacle being Del Toro's schedule (among the projects he was supposed to shoot was a sequel to Sicario). Fox even pushed back the start date to February in order to accommodate the actor. Sources say scheduling issues again became a problem when Del Toro's other movies were rejigged.

The studio had no comment.

Predator was the 1987 muscle-bound action movie that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers and Jesse Ventura as commandos being stalked in a jungle by a fearsome alien. John McTiernan directed the pic, which was one of the films that cemented Schwarzenegger’s star power.

with one obstacle being Del Toro's schedule (among the projects he was supposed to shoot was a sequel to Sicario).

Olivia Munn Joining Boyd Holbrook in Shane Black's 'Predator' Reboot

Olivia Munn is in negotiations to join Boyd Holbrook in The Predator, Twentieth Century Fox's reboot of the alien action-movie series that Shane Black is directing.

Holbrook is starring in the movie, which was co-written by Black and Fred Dekker.

Plot details are being kept under wraps, but this much is known: The story plunks the alien hunter — whom audiences have seen fight in jungles, concrete jungles, frozen wastelands and alien planets — in the harsh environment of … suburbia.

Munn will play a scientist opposite Holbrook’s Special Forces commando.

A February start date is being targeted.

Munn is coming off a role in Fox's summer X-Men franchise outing, X-Men: Apocalypse, in which she played the mutant Psylocke. She will next be seen in DreamWorks' ensemble comedy Office Christmas Party.

She is repped by CAA and Atlas Artists.