Shane Black has nearly finished the script for the Predator sequel
A year ago, the news broke that Shane Black (Iron Man 3, Lethal Weapon) had targeted a reworking/”inventive sequel” to 20th Century Fox’s Predator. So what progress has been made in the year since? According to Collider‘s recent interview with producer John Davis, writer/director (not to mention co-star of John McTiernan’s original) Black is still fully engaged to making the Predator sequel, despite having filmed the 1970’s-set noir The Nice Guys with Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe and the Amazon spaghetti western pilot “Edge” in the interim.
“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,” Davis said. “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.”
Black will be directing the new film and is writing the treatment that will tie in to franchise continuity, with the full script being supplied by his longtime pal Fred Dekker, with whom Black worked on Monster Squad.
“Shane’s got a writing partner, Fred Dekker,” Davis continued. “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.'”
The 1987 original was directed by John McTiernan and starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as the leader of a United States special forces team that comes under attack from an alien entity that prizes the thrill of the hunt above all else. It was followed by a direct sequel, Predator 2, in 1990 before crossing over with Fox’s Alien franchise for two additional sequels, Alien vs. Predator and AvP: Requiem. In 2010, Nimrod Antal helmed a reboot with a new feature, Predators.
John Davis (The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Chronicle) is attached to produce the new Predator sequel with Matt Reilly overseeing for Fox and Ira Napoliello overseeing for Davis Entertainment.
