20th Century Fox has announced that the classic action film, “Predator” will be getting a remake. Filmmaker Shane Black (“Iron Man 3,” “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,” “Lethal Weapon”) will direct as well as write the treatment for the project. The majority of the writing chores however will be handled by Black’s college buddy and “Monster Squad” co-writer Fred Dekker. Black does bring experience to the “Predator” reboot. He played Hawkins in the original 1987 film.
“Predator” is a classic in that it starts out as an action/adventure movie, and then turns into a science-fiction/horror film. The movie starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers and former WWF wrestler Jesse “the body” Ventura as commandos on a covert mission, who are then stalked in the jungle by a fearsome alien. Where “The Terminator” elevated Schwarzenegger’s Hollywood status, “Predator” sealed his bankability. The film was directed by John McTiernan (“Die Hard,” “The Hunt for Red October.”)
When Predator was being made in 1986, Black was already a screenwriting prodigy for his “Lethal Weapon” and “Monster Squad” scripts. The studio and producers wanted him to polish the script for “Predator,” which was then in pre-production. Black turned it down. A few weeks later, they approached him again. Once more, Black said no. Another few weeks went by, and then the studio called again. This time, however, he was told there was a small role in the movie and asked whether he would like to have it. Black said yes.
When he arrived on the set in Mexico, the studio executives and producers greeted him and said, “By the way, would you mind taking a look at the script?” Black replied, “I’m still not rewriting it.”
Since then, Fox has found ways to keep the Predator character alive in subsequent films. There have been two sequels, “Predator 2” (1990) and the Robert Rodriguez produced “Predators” (2010,) as well as two crossover films with the Alien franchise, “Alien vs. Predator” (2004) and “Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem” (2007,) have been produced.
Fox executive Matt Reilly is overseeing the reboot, along with Ira Napoliello for John Davis’ Davis Entertainment. Davis produced the original with Joel Silver and Lawrence Gordon.
Black has been very busy since “Iron Man 3” arrived in theaters in May of 2013. He is attempting to assemble a cast for the 1970s crime movie, “The Nice Guys,” which was originally scheduled to be a television series. It is rumored Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe are highly interested in the project, which is being produced by Joel Silver.
Black is also developing the 1930s pulp hero Doc Savage for Sony. He recently met with Chris Hemsworth to discuss the “Thor” star’s involvement as the title character. Even though Sony considers Savage to be top priority, it has met with some roadblocks due to its budgetary issues.
No news as to when the “Predator” reboot is scheduled to begin production.
Sources: thehollywoodreporter, wikipedia, IMDb