Jake Busey will play son of his dad’s Predator 2 character in The Predator
Jake Busey (Starship Troopers, Identity) has revealed to The Red Booth (via Pop Culture) that his role in 20th Century Fox and Shane Black‘s sequel The Predator is, in fact, the son of his dad Gary Busey’s Peter Keyes character from Predator 2!
“[Shane Black] called me and he said ‘Hey, you wanna do this movie? We don’t have money for you but it’ll be a fun thing to come play and be your father’s son,’” Busey said. “And so as much as I have followed in my Dad’s footsteps career-wise, this is like really following in his footsteps by playing a character who is the son of the character he played. And I don’t think there would be any other forum where I would do that. I think this is the one thing.” He also added, “If you liked the very first movie a lot, you’ll really like this one. This one has a lot of essence of the first movie.”
The character of Keyes has an interesting history, as screenwriters Jim and John Thomas (who also wrote the first Predator) had intended the role to be Dutch, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character. The part was then rewritten as a special agent posing as DEA in order to capture the Predator as it roamed Los Angeles. Keyes ultimately met an untimely end in his pursuit of the creature. Gary Busey himself also played one of the main villains (Mr. Joshua) in Lethal Weapon, the first produced script by Shane Black.
The cast includes Boyd Holbrook (Narcos, Logan), Olivia Munn (X-Men: Apocalypse), Trevante Rhodes (Moonlight), Keegan-Michael Key (Keanu, Key & Peele), Thomas Jane (The Punisher), Jacob Tremblay (Room), Yvonne Strahovski (Dexter), Alfie Allen (Game of Thrones), Sterling K. Brown (The People vs. O.J. Simpson, This is Us) and Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica, Blade Runner).
Details on the film are still under wraps, but the persistent rumor is that the film takes place partly in suburbia with the Predator slowly revealing himself to be a threat to the film’s heroes.
Black, who wrote the script with his Monster Squad co-writer Fred Dekker, has confirmed that the film remains in the continuity of the first two movies and isn’t a full reboot of the series. He said there is a reference in the script as to why the film has a singular title, and that the film will carry an R rating.
The original Predator 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.
The Predator will be released in theaters on February 9, 2018.
