Shane Black’s ‘Predator’ Is More Sequel Than Reboot
On the spectrum of news about a reboot, remake or sequel,Tuesday’s revealofShane BlackandFred Dekkerdoing aPredatormovie was about as good as it gets. You’ve got Black, of the best writers out there, who also happens to be a solid director and who was involved in the original film. He’s teaming up with his good friend Dekker, himself a pretty great writer and director, and they’re tackling a popular franchise that has only had three dedicated movies. All big wins.
The original story was that this newPredatorwould be a reboot. But according to Black, that’s not he case. He wouldn’t quantify it exactly but said the film wouldn’t start over when there’s so much mythology to mine. That means it’s a sequel of some sort. Read his exact words below.
Black spoke toCollider, which put together all his quotes to read like this:
Black tells us that he and Dekker see the project as definitely not a reboot, “As far as Fred and I are concerned anyway,” Black said, adding “Why start over, when you’ve all this rich mythology yet to mine?” Black said he doesn’t like reboots generally, but can “really get behind inventive sequels”, noting that he likes “the idea of expanding and exploring the existingPredatormythology, rather than hitting the restart button.”
“The idea of expanding and exploring the existingPredatormythology.” “Inventive sequels.” These are phrases we can very much get behind, especially from a team like Black and Dekker. Now, that’s not to say the film won’t serve as an entry point for new viewers. It just won’t ignore everything that came before it, which is a smart, fun way to appease both fans who love the originals (Black and Dekker included) and the studio, who want to try and make more money out of the intellectual property.
So what could the movie do to expand the mythology? Will it take into account things we learned in theAlien vs. Predatormovies? IsPredatorscanon? Discuss that below.
