"KEEP BUSTIN'."

Black & Dekker PREDATOR

tn_shaneblackAs I’m sure we all heard, Hollywood Reporter is hollywood reporting that Shane Black (LETHAL WEAPON) is writing a treatment for a “reboot” of PREDATOR, to be scripted by his old partner Fred Dekker (MONSTER SQUAD, NIGHT OF THE CREEPS, sorry about ROBOCOP 3) and directed by Black.

Sign me up. Let’s discuss why this is good news.

1. The reunion of the Black & Dekker team. These two were buddies in film school, they wrote MONSTER SQUAD together. Back then they worked well together. Also their names sound good together.

2. The return of Dekker. I was late to the party on this guy, so I have zero nostalgia involved in saying that MONSTER SQUAD and NIGHT OF THE CREEPS are the work of a natural born filmatist. He also had a hand in the writing of Russell Mulcahy’s insane Denzel/Ice-T picture RICOCHET. And yes, it is understandable why the inexcusable ROBOCOP 3 put him in director jail. But he hasn’t had a credit in more than ten years. He’s been real good, hasn’t stabbed any guards, has written letters of apology to the victims’ families. Let’s let him out on work release at the very least.

3. Connection to the series. Shane Black, of course, was in PREDATOR. He was out there in the jungle when they were making it. He is possibly the only person who is both qualified to direct PREDATOR and has been killed by Predator. Also he’s one of the primary voices of the smart-macho late ’80s action era that the movie came out of. So he understands this on a “this is my shit” level, not on the “I grew up wearing the pajamas!” level of most modern rebooteners.

Meanwhile, Dekker worked with PREDATOR-creature-creator Stan Winston on MONSTER SQUAD. As I pointed out when I reviewed that one, the Creature From the Black Lagoon could be Predator’s cousin:

creaturevpredator

4. I mean shit, I’m always down for a new PREDATOR movie. The first one is a classic. The second one is fun too. The third one was pretty good. It at least understood that it’s important to have an ensemble of badass dudes in a PREDATOR. This is a simple monster, concept and tone that is always fun to revisit if done right.

NOTE: The article does not give any indication of what it means by “reboot.” The word no longer has a precise meaning. Most people seem to assume it means “remake,” but it could also mean a sequel that tries to restart the series in a way that PREDATORS didn’t, or it could mean just a totally different take on the concept that isn’t the same story about some soldiers in the jungle but also isn’t a sequel. To me, any of these possibilities would be fine if it’s Black & Dekker in charge. They know what they’re doing.

UPDATE: Shane Black says it’s a sequel.

I say put Van Damme in one of the predator suits though. Give him another shot.

P.S. Keep in mind, Black gets attached to alot of projects that haven’t happened yet. For example he’s still trying to do a Doc Savage movie (the article says he met with Chris Hemsworth about it). But you know how Hollywood loves licensed property franchise trademark IP titles.

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91 Responses to “Black & Dekker PREDATOR”

  1. This time have Van Damme out of the costume, fighting on the human side.

  2. Are we talking Iron Man vs Predator?

  3. WTF. Aren’t action reboots supposed to be done by 24 year olds whos only other film was an indie romance about eels or something

  4. Knox Harrington

    June 25th, 2014 at 5:11 am

    Glad to see Vern finally posted a picture of himself.

  5. Okay, at first: I like all three Predator movies. But I do have to say that I prefer Parts 2 and S over part 1, while still acknowledging how good it is. Then I also have to say that Fred Dekker isn’t really one of the top names on my “People who are awesome” list. I love NIGHT OF THE CREEPS, but hate ROBOCOP 3 and was seriously annoyed and bored by MONSTER SQUAD.

    Apart from that: Bring it on! That is probably the best thing that could happen to this series and while it may sound like a back handed compliment, I totally mean it. Hooray for Preddy!

  6. I doubt very much that the horror that was ROBOCOP 3 was all Fred’s fault. Even 2 had a lot of studio interference, so I’m sure there were a lot of cooks to blame. I love NIGHT OF THE CREEPS.

  7. Knox Harrington

    June 25th, 2014 at 6:34 am

    To be honest, I’d much rather see Black do Doc Savage. It’s something new and I know it’s a passion project of his. I’m a bit worn out on Predators, Aliens and Terminators (not Robocops, though. I’ll never tire of Robocop).

    At least it would be interesting to see how far they’re willing to reinvented the Predator. The look, the weapons, the methods. That might get me excited, even though they will suffer from the Robocop effect: No matter what you do, you won’t be able to top the original design.

    Still, as someone who really liked the new Robocop design, I’d love to see what they come up with. I’d rather see a drastic redesign than the subtle changes we saw in the sequels.

  8. Knox – I think the problem with Doc Savage (which might explain why its still in development, not you know actually getting made) is that Savage has been ripped off so much that once you get the genuine article, it’ll come off very much as a derivative of those things which ripped him off. (See JOHN CARTER.)

    “and was seriously annoyed and bored by MONSTER SQUAD.”

    CJ Holden – Lets be honest: You’re still pissed about the scary old German guy. :) “More pie?”

    Dan S – To say the least, I think ROBOCOP 3 still would’ve sucked regardless of who directed it.

  9. This movie seems like Black accruing leverage so he can do DOC SAVAGE the way he wants. SAVAGE is pretty much guaranteed to lose a shitload of money (as Vern pointed out in his LONE RANGER review, these big-budget revamps of old pulp heroes almost always do) so it’s smart to have a couple surefire successes in a row before he goes into a possibly career-damaging project like that. Plus he just happens to be the perfect guy for this particular job, so it’s a win for everybody. Hooray for the studio system.

  10. Mr. M – Why are you assumig this new Predator will be a hit? Honestly as shitty as this sounds, I could see this be a JACK RYAN* where its a reboot of another reboot of a 1980s-era character that try to be relevant in the 2010s and fail.

    *=Except you know much better and not as bland as hell as JACK RYAN was.

  11. Steve Wang worked on the Predator and Gillman suits, so Black&Dekker should get him to direct second unit:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oYl6E-liNE

  12. What sounds shitty about it? You got a great franchise, a couple of great writers, and a great director. What’s not to like?

  13. Knox Harrington

    June 25th, 2014 at 7:23 am

    I think the problem with the old pulp hero revamps is that they make them too damn big and expensive. JOHN CARTER and THE LONE RANGER both cost an insane amount of money. I have no idea how much of a profit THE PHANTOM or THE ROCKETEER made, but at least they’re not known as some of the biggest flops of all time.

    It should be more than possible to make DOC SAVAGE for less than $100 million instead of $250 million. But yeah, nobody’s gonna touch that project after the two biggest flops of the decade. Thanks, Disney.

    Or rather: Thanks, mainstream audiences.

    Actually: Thanks, shitty marketing geniuses.

  14. Somehow I think Shane Black is a better fit for PREDATOR than fucking Kenneth Branaugh was for JACK RYAN. I don’t know, maybe there’s a little more cause for optimism there.

  15. RRA, it’s not that he was scary, but that his German was gibberish! :D

  16. Dikembe Mutombo

    June 25th, 2014 at 9:20 am

    I thought JACK RYAN wasn’t half bad. It wasn’t sensational but Branagh acquitted himself pretty well and it has some standout moments. Obviously I’m a lot more pumped for a new Shane Black movie though.

  17. I just hope “reboot” doesn’t mean “with a hip new predator design for the kids, all CG of course, but ironically referencing the classic design, maybe the new hip predator has a picture of his desk of the old one”

  18. Well, I’m not a kid, Mr. Subtlety, but I’m really hoping that they’re going to revamp the Predator itself this time round – keep the head
    as it is but drop the fucking wiggly rubber feet and claws and the ’80s fishnet look. Aren’t those guys meant to be agile hunters
    parkour-ing around jungle canopies? Their appearance should reflect that more, in my opinion. Make ’em lither, sleeker, less humanoid.

    One of the main gripes I’ve always had about the whole Alien vs. Predator concept was that in terms of creature design, the Pred wasn’t
    fit to lick the Alien’s Giger-y feet.

  19. INT – A DARKENED ROOM

    THE PREDATOR sits as his computer, reading an announcement that SHANE BLACK’S NEW PREDATOR will be an entirely CGI creation.

    THE PREDATOR makes a clicky-growly noise and begins polishing his wristblades with a laser.

  20. Knox Harrington

    June 25th, 2014 at 10:53 am

    I hope it’s a prequel, where we find out that Billy and the Predator are actually old rivals and that the elder Aliens charged Billy with protecting Dutch, who is the chosen one and the one man alive who could kill a Predator.

    But his mind gets wiped at the end.

    And we learn that Dutch will eventually build Skynet.

  21. This is great news. I love the first PREDATOR film and enjoy the other installments and I agree with Vern that Black is the best man for the job. Black & Dekkers involment also makes me feel confident that they have a good story to tell and this in not going to just be a rehash of themes and ideas that have already explored in the previous films.

    What do you guys think, does Black bring back Arnie? If so how should he be used? I would like to see Arnie return to the franchise, but only if the have a good use for his character and they are not just brining him back for nostalgic purposes.

  22. Maybe I’m getting old but it annoys me to no end that everywhere else that I read about this it was prefaced with “IRON MAN 3’s Shane Black” which leads people to ignorantly go into lame bitchfests.

    How about Shane Black the first guy we saw die on screen in PREDATOR? or the writer of LETHAL WEAPON, LETHAL WEAPON 2 and THE LAST BOY SCOUT? or the guy who helped RDJ make a comeback before it was cool with KISS KISS, BANG BANG?

    Thank god for this sight. If it wasn’t for this community I would lose all hope in future generations of genre fans due to their poor sense of history.

  23. They have already made Predator films in the jungle so I would love to see them set the film in a drastically different location like the desert. What if the film took place during the Iraq war outside of the green zone or the hills of Afghanistan as an elite group of comandos persue a high level terrorist target but soon find that they are not the only ones on the hunt and must join forces with the men they are pursuing if hey hope to survive the Predators that are hunting them.

  24. CEPE — exactly what I’m worried about. That’s exactly the kind of thing that will result in an embarrassing “re-imagining.” Let’s review:

    I know, I know, it sounds like a good idea to do sleeker, modern CG redesigns. But let’s learn something from history, huh guys?

  25. To be fair, Bill Paxton and Bill Duke might also be qualified to direct The Predator after having been killed by The Predator. Frailty had good atmosphere and Deep Cover had decent action sequences, but yeah, Black seems well suited for the job (even though I didn’t really care for Iron Man 3). And I really hope this isn’t an actual remake, but more of a Predators-style reboot where, despite it’s flaws, it at least throws in a few curveballs with the familiarity (i.e. throwing in the Cube/Saw kidnapping element, going to outer space, establishing Predators as watchers over humanity). The last thing the world needs is a straight-up remake of the first film.

  26. I’m kinda torn on this, I actually liked predators, and was sorta hoping for a sequel to then
    film, I like Black and Dekker, and am curious as to what they will do with the franchise; however, will it be another abandoned storyline like the last one, just don’t change the appearance of the predator, Stan Winston had it all right the first time.

  27. The Original... Paul

    June 25th, 2014 at 11:52 am

    Wait… there was a Predator 3?

    Now I’m totally lost. I know about AvP of course, but I’ve only ever seen two Predator films that didn’t feature aliens (or pizza delivery boys).

  28. I don’t want anyone who’s been in an EXPENDABLES movie to be in this, which sadly leaves out Scott Adkins, but he’s more a martial arts guy than a guns and explosions guy, so it’s not so bad. But how about
    The Rock- Dutch
    Manu Bennett- Billy
    Ray Stevenson- Blain
    Michael Jai White- Mac
    Don Cheadle- Dillon
    ?

  29. ^and Aaron Paul as Hawkins

  30. Mr. M – Again I’m with you on spirit but outside of us people who appreciate Black and have fondness for those Predators…I’m not sure people outside of us actually care about that property.

    Knox – That’s Hollywood for ya. They feel that they won’t gross a billion unless they spend half a billion in total budget (production and ad $)Which of course is absurd, but that’s their mentality these days.

    Broddie – what annoys me is whenever IM3 comes up anywhere, you have people still bitching about the Mandarin. Dear lord nerds, Marvel put out that short film on that one DVD where they ret-conned IM3 so that Kingsley was only an imposter of the real thing. People who moan about that are on par with those who won’t let go Superman giving Zod a career break in MOS. Jesus.

    Dikembe – At best, its a rental. But obviously I can see why Paramount dumped it from the Xmas market in favor of a January release. Not a bad film in anyway, but I…am pressed to give any reason as to why its good and not just another Jason Bourne/CASINO ROYALE clone. I mean when you’re a step down from the last Jack Ryan reboot in SUM OF ALL FEARS (which was a step down from CLEAR & PRESENT DANGER), I think they finally got the message that this relic can’t be resurrected.

  31. By the way, guys, Shane Black is saying this is going to be a sequel, not a reboot.

  32. Didn’t Black essentially do a page one re-write of the script for Predator, whilst on the set?

    Amazing news, this. And bringing Dekker in, too – very intriguing.

    Hope it’s a huge hit and the two of them can finally make Shadow Company.

    (BTW, re-watched Predator 2 just a few days ago and it’s mostly fucking great, until the predator runs past that old lady, making me wonder if it was some sort of Freebie & The Bean gag.)

  33. All the PREDATORs are great. The first 2 are hilarious and have some of the most satisfying horror-violence ever filmed. The jokes in PREDATORS 2010 script didn’t do much for me, but that movie has, in my opinion that you’ll disagree with because you’re wrong, the best character of the Predaverse in Adrien Brody’s brilliant, mysterious soldier/mercenary.

    It’s a shame no filmatists ever acted on the urge to combine ALIEN and PREDATOR in some sort of spin-off movie or 2 that explores what would happen if one race of creature fought the other, perhaps using planet Earth as the setting for a “A versus P” type ordeal. That could have been a lot of fun but sadly no one ever tried to make a real, competent movie based on that scenario so let’s just forget I ever mentioned it, sorry, didn’t happen, never will probly.

    In conclusion, I would like to offer this idea to Shane Black & co.:
    Humans are now more capable than Predator. Especially men. We have superior nightvision, we have drones, we have flexible, lightweight Kevlar (R.I.P. Ms. Kwolek; a lot of my friends and I owe you a life, literally.), we have bigger, crazier munitions than what existed in the ’80s, most of our male action stars these days are forced to become bodybuilding gods and train in various fighting styles before they’re allowed to do movies, etc.. So I would suggest that Mr. and Mrs. Predator “evolve” their hunting tastes and go after women.

    PREDAFOUR: THE CRACKDOWN should take place at the first ever all-women training grounds for the historic forthcoming group of first ever female U.S. Army Ranger candidates.

    I’d be happy if there weren’t a single dude in the whole movie. What’s the gender-inversed version of “Long Tall Sally”?

  34. “Brown Eyed Handsome Man” by Chuck Berry

  35. Dikembe Mutombo

    June 25th, 2014 at 6:47 pm

    Does anyone else not think super highly of PREDATOR 2? Don’t get me wrong, it’s entertaining for sure and more of a worthy PREDATOR sequel than any of the others, but the things it thinks are cool and funny are a lot lamer than their equivalents in PREDATOR. It crosses the line between ‘sublimely ridiculous’ and ‘just retarded’ that PREDATOR so ably straddled.

    RRA – I’m always in the market for a half-deece CASINO ROYALE clone, since it’s my favorite western action movie of the last 10 years. RYAN’s pretty brazen about ripping a little CR here, some Bourne there, some GHOST PROTOCOL here, and it’s not a movie I’d say has a really strong signature. But when it’s doing something well it has a real charge to it that makes you lament how generic the rest of the movie is – even then I’ll take its high points (the hotel fight scene, and the attention the film pays to its procedural and emotional aftermath, is all seriously terrific stuff; and the dinner date with Knightley and Branagh intercut with the spy shit was very well done, as a director Branagh is alert to the energizing little human touches and the playfulness and menace are well balanced) over a lot of other action movies this year.

    I think it’s way better than SUM OF ALL FEARS, which at the time struck me as lowest common denominator bad. Maybe I could revisit that one in a different light nowadays, considering the climate when it came out.

  36. Nah, Dikembe, I don’t deny that there are several moments in PREDATWO that are sitcom-level stupid. Can’t recall the specifics, as it’s been a while since the last rewatch, but there are a few overly-jokey bits about weed smoke, dreadlocked characters, and subway-riding innocents that are more tonally aligned with Troma or Cheech/Chong than a legit action-horror movie.

    The new B&D PRESENTS: PREDATOR IV: BASED ON AN INTERNET COMMENT BY MOUTH will feature at least one ironic “f*ggot” joke delivered by a lesbian in my opinion. Shane Black knows how to generate controversy, meta-discussion, and laffs.

  37. Dikembe Mutombo

    June 25th, 2014 at 8:03 pm

    Mouth – last time I watched it I think the opening scene prejudiced me against the rest of the movie. 1997 LOS ANGELES and Danny Glover’s gigantic laser sighted chrome deagle were just too much for me. It’s more exaggerated than the Joel Silver parody in GRAND CANYON. In retrospect though it’s got a lot of great stuff in it (including some prime Buseying) and I’ll always love the shit out of the Preds giving Glover a souvenir trophy before fucking off in their space ship at the end. If the opportunity arose to see it with a theater audience I’d probably be more excited about that than I would PREDATOR 1.

  38. Come on now, we live in a world where Arnold Schwarzenegger is still playing The Terminator and Conan. PREDATOR 3/4/6 (depending how you count) should be Dutch ruling the Predator planet.

  39. I always thought a Predator film set during World War One or two would have been cool. A Predator in the trenches ortaking out a Nazi outpost would be cool.

    Still, Shane Black doing Predator? This news gets me wetter than Drew Barrymore at a grunge concert. Wait, that doesn’t quite work.

  40. Overuse of ‘would have been cool’ in that last post. Apologies.

  41. The Undefeated Gaul

    June 26th, 2014 at 2:14 am

    Way back after seeing Troy I had this idea of a “Achilles + Myrmidons vs Predator” premise. Still think something like that would be cool.

    By the way, when Black said it’s gonna be a sequel, did he mention to which film? Is it the type of deal where they only acknowledge the first one existing, or will it take place after Predators?

    I wouldn’t mind the latter option, or even them bringing back Brody’s character. He was unexpectedly great as a badass soldier type.

  42. Mr. Subtlety:

    It’s all subjective, man. Since I don’t really care about either Godzilla or RoboCop, those re-designs don’t bother me at all. And say what you will about Emmerich’s film itself, but Tatopoulos’ take on Godzilla isn’t actually bad, it just doesn’t look like the Japanese rubber-suit creature.
    I’ll freely admit that the VAN HELSING Drac is ridiculous (as is the one in BLADE TRINITY) but I’m pretty sure that design arose from Sommers eternal desire to turn EVERYTHING (even the Rock) into crappy CGI and not from an effort to improve the creature in a meaningful way.

    Besides, I didn’t ask for CG Predators; I simply want BETTER ones. Think about it. Those guys, as depicted in the existing movies, are all tanks. There’s no way they could feasibly sneak around without being noticed, not even when they’re invisible. They’re also inflexible, slow, and obviously stuntmen dressed in a rubber suit stuck in a fishnet bodystocking. Mouth is right: modern soldiery would probably tear them to shreds.

    If we’re stuck with the classic design (which the latest rumours of the new film being a sequel rather than a remake would point to) I’d at least like a couple of additional Predator classes to supplement the roster we’re already familiar with. They can’t all be roided-up dozers on that planet they come from, right? Don’t they have scouts, snipers, spies? Give me some variety, Black & Dekker.

    Jimbolo:

    There’d have to be some sort of time travel element to that story, since there were no Nazis in World War I.

  43. The Original... Paul

    June 26th, 2014 at 7:00 am

    Oh, did they do a “Predator” reboot already? I lose track of these things.

  44. Jimbolo:

    I only just noticed that you actually wrote WW One “or two”, so that explains the Nazi allusion. My mistake.

  45. PREDATOR IV: THE RETURN OF HAWKINS
    It turns out the Predator from the first movie had a brother who wants to finish the unresolved business from the original movie. After killing Dutch and whatshername in the pre-titles sequence, he learns that Hawkins actually survived. Thus begins an epic game of cat and mouse, culminating in a showdown inside Hawkins’ girlfriend’s vagina, where Hawkins uses echolocation to pinpoint the Predator and kill it.

  46. Speaking of bizarre scenarios. I was watching a re-run of GOLDEN GIRLS (don’t judge me) last night and, swear to God, Quentin Tarantino played an Elvis impersonator in a crowd of Elvis extras. I was all by myself and was dying to turn to someone and say, “Is that Quentin Tarantino?!” IMDB has confirmed, indeed, it was.

  47. Advanced Lucifer Radio

    June 26th, 2014 at 12:20 pm

    My main concern, even with Black in board, is that this is going to be another adult film, sequellized with a low enough rating to grab that 13 year old box office dollar (see Taken, Die Hard, Robocop, EVERYTHING). Like a lot of you guys, I loved – LOVED – Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. I’d sooner see a new Black original.

  48. Knox Harrington

    June 26th, 2014 at 2:00 pm

    Yeah, the PG-13 thing is almost a given these days. Seriously, what the hell happened to the world? How do we not have R-rated mainstream entertainment anymore? I thought that the modern world was supposed to become less puritanical over time.

    I’m pointing my finger at you here, America. 9/11 really fucked you up as a country.

  49. Knox Harrington

    June 26th, 2014 at 2:02 pm

    Sorry, didn’t mean to bring up 9/11. May have been a tad insensitive.

  50. Knox — No problem, (Small, non-specific spoiler for NON-STOP) the plot twist in NON-STOP references it too, so I guess I can’t complain. (End small, non-specific spoiler for NON-STOP). But you can’t blame 9/11 for all the PG-13 action movies, really. Yes, a few hard-R action vehicles got pushed back in the few months that followed, but mostly it didn’t affect content that much. What does affect it is money. Big action vehicles are made so expensively now that they MUST be incredibly front-loaded to make any money at all. They HAVE to be accessible to absolutely everyone who would even remotely be interested, because they need to make $50+ their opening weekend to stand any change of making their obscene production and marketing budget back. That’s the theory, anyway, and to some extent it’s borne out by evidence that R-rated action movies don’t seem able to make the $200 that is now requisit to be considered a success.

  51. Paul, are you sure you’re not thinking of BLACK BELT JONES?

  52. my idea for a new Predator movie would be set in Tokyo, with the Pred stalking the Yakuza among the neon signed soaked skyscrapers, wouldn’t that be cool?

  53. or go really crazy and have it set in Victorian England with the Predator hunting Jack The Ripper

  54. The Original... Paul

    June 29th, 2014 at 4:29 am

    Majestyk – I could be. I definitely could be.

    Apparently my memory for samurai-related film trivia is as bad as… well… my memory for anything else, I guess. That should not come as a surprise, but for some reason it does.

  55. The Original... Paul

    June 29th, 2014 at 4:37 am

    Heh, I’d forgotten how bad my memory was. Heeheeheeheeheehee… ahh screw it.

  56. I hope there’s a cameo from Danny Glover’s enormous Predator 2 pants.

  57. So is anybody interested in talking about Black & Dekker’s surprise Western pilot for Amazon? I even made a forum thread

  58. Apparently the link isn’t working. But like I said: Forum. Easy to find. In the Television part.

  59. Black, who is known for penning “Lethal Weapon,” told Thrillist he was “reluctant” about the project when contacted by Fox, but he was told Fox would support him making the new film a “spectacle.”

    LOL, sigh, fuck this shit, I’m out. Predator is not a fucking “spectacle”.

  60. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/olivia-munn-joining-boyd-holbrook-shane-blacks-predator-reboot-943571

    Olivia Munn, taking place in surburbia… none of this sounds good. In fact it reminds me of ALIEN VS PREDATOR: REQUIEM.

  61. The Undefeated Gaul

    November 4th, 2016 at 2:51 am

    Yeah, I’m starting to get worried. A Shane Black directed, R-rated, big budget Predator sequel starring Benicio Del Toro sounded like the best thing ever. Then Del Toro gets replaced by Boyd Holbrook and now Olivia Munn has joined. So instead of an ultimate badass now we’re getting two dull-as-dishwater charisma vacuums to star in this thing. Plus it takes place in suburbia..?? Almost seems like Black is trying to torpedo our enthusiasm on purpose. If that’s the case, well, job done…

  62. The suburbian aspect is surprising, but welcome in my opinion.

  63. But that cast means nothing to me.

  64. I liked Olivia Munn in Magic Mike and her arc on New Girl, but haven’t seen much else of her. I hear she’s terrible in Xmen Apocalypse which I haven’t seen, but then again Singer somehow managed to make Jennifer Lawrence and Michael Fassbender boring in DOFP, so that may not be entirely her fault.

    Side note: I like how people on other parts of the web are OUTRAGED about a former model like Munn playing a scientist, bringing up Denise Richards as a nuclear physicist and whatnot. But I thought we were just OUTRAGED about how Leslie Jones had to play the street-wise subway employee in Ghostbusters and why couldn’t someone who looks and acts like her be a scientist, blah blah blah? But now we’re saying certain people are too pretty to play scientists? Great lesson to teach young girls there.

    And yes, the “suburbs” setting is the worst part of this news. At least Predators had a truly high-concept plot that seemed worthy of rebooting the franchise (even though the execution could have been way better).

  65. Shane Black on Twitter

    “Just found out from Hollywood Reporter that Predator 4 is all about the suburbs. Hmmm... if they say so.”

  66. There everybody goes again. Trying to tell Shane Black how to do his job.

  67. Speaking of suburban Predator shenanigans, I spent the evening reading ARCHIE VS PREDATOR, as one of the few comic books I picked up lately. I was sceptic that it was going to end up as a travesty, but it really was funny from beginning to end. I have not read a single Archie comic since I was a kid but I immediately got into the characters and somehow this story actually works as a crazy crossover.

  68. Especially if you consider Betty and Veronicas rivalry over Archie as central, then I think it absolutely works. That is what usually is going on in an Archie comic, right? I just don´t know, I don´t remember ,but the comic lead me to believe that. The ending is kind of fucked up in a way I did not expect and works out in a pretty hilarious way.

  69. Shoot, there is an Archie tv show coming to the CW that looks like a dark take on the subject matter.

  70. Well, I am not sure a “dark take” is what I want. Whatever thast means. The comic is pretty light hearted and witty in the midst of the gore and over the top violence. A fair comparison would be this sort of ASH VS EVIL DEAD tone over it with easily quotable lines in an preposterous environment.

  71. I too enjoyed AVP: Archie Vs Predator. I was never a big Archie fan, but do I still enjoy the Betty & Veronica solo stories (or the ones that focus on them rather than Archie).

    Not sure what to make of that RIVERDALE show Sternshein mentioned. Is it like that TICK Amazon pilot I didn’t get where the joke is that there is no joke?

  72. Just got into Archie with the reboot but RIVERDALE looks like the most non-Archie thing one could expect from an Archie adaptation. So far off and weird I kind of hope it tanks.

  73. Have you guys seen the picture of the new cast of Shane Black’s predator? I get not wanting to do the same thing as the original Predator but these new guys look like they would have no chance what so ever against the Predator. It’s almost like if Shane Black is writing this movie to get back at the actors in the first movie because they spent the entire time making fun of him not not being as macho as them. So he ended up just casting a whole bunch of Shane Black surrogates to beat the Predator.

    Plus, Shane Black needs to stop putting a kid in everything he does. If Shane Black has one flaw it’s the need to have a kid character. Sometimes they work out ok but I have a feeling this one is going to be just insufferable. My expectations on this one are super low.

  74. Plus they replaced Benicio Del Toro with Boyd Holbrook which, from what I’m gathering from reading you guys talk about Logan, is a gigantic step down in the charisma department.

  75. If just about anyone else was behind it, I’d be cautious but I’m one of those ‘In Shane Black we trust’ fanboys I guess. Even without a trailer or plot synopsis, it already looks more interesting than ALIEN COVENANT which is promising to do nothing new (I know your stance on ‘interesting’ vs legit good!) and despite my comment just now I’m still looking forward to ALIEN COVENANT).

    As for Holbrook replacing Del Toro, Black works well with actors so, again, I have faith and you are allowed to shove this in my face if it comes out bad.

  76. Let Shane Black do what he wants, and complain after the movie is released. Okay?

  77. The Rock has been cast as Dillon Jr. Finally somebody that lives up to the original. Too bad I guarantee you he gets murdered in the opening scene.

  78. The Rock has been cast as Dillon Jr. Finally somebody that lives up to the original. Too bad I guarantee you he gets murdered in the opening scene.

  79. Although, it would be awesome if the Predator kidnaps Arnold’s daughter so he has to go all Commando on the Predator to get her back.

  80. I really don’t give two shits who’s in this movie. Shane Black wrote it. It could star the cast of GLEE and I’d be onboard.

  81. Jane Lynch Vs the Predator. I would watch that.

  82. Sterlong K. Brown Vs. Predator under Shane Black’s pen is what has my interesting.

  83. *Sterling

  84. Normally I would agree with Mr M and Shoot but something seems really off about this whole thing. Probably because I have super high expectations and I like my Predator fighters to be jacked to the gills pro wrestlers or Danny Glover.

  85. Today is April 1st. God damnit I hate April 1st.

  86. Yes Stern, I realize I’m speaking prematurely and the movie may end up sucking. You will earn your gloat if so, but that said I’m going all in on this post:

    Arnold Schwarzenegger Didn't Like the Script for The Predator - Dread Central

    Arnold Schwarzenegger Didn't Like the Script for The Predator

    AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS: Yes
    An episode of TWO AND A HALD MAN: Yes
    All three EXPENDABLES: Yes
    TERMINATOR GENESYS: Yes
    SHANE BLACK-written film: Dah fuk is dis shit?!

    *Yes I realize his comments seem to be more concerned with the size of the role than most other things.

  87. Sigh. One of these days I guess Shane Black’ll get the benefit of the doubt. I mean, you’d think never sucking once in 30 years would buy him a little goodwill, but hey, what has he done for us lately?

    Oh right. THE NICE GUYS, probably the best script of the past five years. But how many video games did they make out of that, huh? Probably none. Obviously the smart thing for the producers to do would be to consult the many, many experts on the internet and not rely on a talented writer with a unique voice and a string of proven successes.

  88. The second trailer for The Predator makes it look like something I can get into. My only question is, is Thomas Jane even in this movie? I don’t think I’ve seen him in any of the trailers but he’s always mentioned in it. Hmmmm

  89. Maj, I was just re-watching THE NICE GUYS and I’ll be damned if I wouldn’t play a video game centered around Healy & March. Mebbe one of those point and click mystery-type pc games from the ’90s. Or a Call of Cthulu type-deal where March has a panic meter and if too much weird shit happens to him he starts running around uncontrollably and screaming like Lou Costello.

    Either way, great idea.

    Too bad THE PREDATOR turned out to not be very good. I hope there’s a book about it some day, coz I’m not sure who to blame, besides the studio. Obviously.

  90. Jerome- my wife has a phrase I’ve come to use, which is “poppy field movies”, movies that if you ever come across them on tv or whatever, you just can’t help but get sucked in and finish ‘em no matter when you came in. THE NICE GUYS is 100% one of those for me and it’s absolutely because of how much I enjoy the interaction between Healy and March. I sort of imagine that Healy is actually just Bud White from L.A. CONFIDENTIAL 25 years later.

  91. Kurg, I can totally see that about Healy/White. As for ‘poppy field movies’, my roomie got us a Roku for the quarantine and that’s why I’ve watched DAY OF THE DEAD at least fifteen times this summer. Walter Hill’s SOUTHERN COMFORT has started coming up and I guess that’s next on the ‘poppy field’ agenda. It’s SO good.

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