Shane Black Describes His New Predator Movie as an “Old-School Thriller”

Action. Science Fiction. Horror. These are the genres that best categorize the Predator movies to date, which is likely the reason why writer-director Shane Black decided the flagging franchise needed to go in another direction, to tackle another genre. In a recent interview with Collider, Black, who helped launch the franchise as the dirty-joke-telling Hawkins in the classic original, said that “nostalgia” prompted him to make his Predator movie an “old-school thriller.”

There’s an element of intrigue and I think espionage/mystery, whatever. The government is involved in this and it takes it to the level of what happens when the Predator strikes, these incursions are not just an every-once-in-a-while phenomenon known to a few, but have come to the attention of an establishment that is actually set on preparing for and marshaling forces against these incoming Predator strikes. And, so it’s that sort of what the next step is, when they get noticed, that’s kind of what we start as our jumping off point for what’s different.

Black went on to say that his intention was “to take the exiting mythology” and dig a little deeper into the reasons and motivations behind both the Predators and the soldiers who fight them, while making the movie a unique experience for franchise fans.

Why do Predators do what they do? What would be the next step for them? How do we up the stakes so that there’s not just a single Predator hunting a group of soldiers? Who are the soldiers? How are they different? What’s the heroic quotient and how do you make it not just guys with tough talk and big arms? I mean, I always favor real characters with real actors in these movies. I’m happy to have someone like Jesse Ventura, he’s actually a fine actor as far as that goes. But the actors we tended to get for this are a cut above, I think, the average tough guy.

The Predator was co-written by Fred Dekker. The cast includes Jacob Tremblay, Trevante Rhodes, Olivia Munn, Sterling K. Brown,  Keegan-Michael Key, Yvonne Strahovski, Boyd Holbrook, Augusto Aguilera, Jake Busey, Alfie Allen and Thomas Jane.

The movie is slated to open on September 14th.