Surprise news about thePredatorthat nobody saw coming, how…incredibly on-brand for the big guy. Deadline reports that10 Cloverfield LanedirectorDan Trachtenberghas been tapped by 20th Century Studios to helm a fifthPredatorfilm.Patrick Aison, most known for TV series likeJack RyanandKingdom, is on script duties.
The yet-untitled film will followShane Black’sThe Predator, which debuted in 2018 to a resounding meh from all sides. Which is a bummer, because that movie also featuredJacob Tremblaycrashing an alien space-ship with a helmet he found. That also might be the reason that, according to the report, Trachtenberg’s movie won’t pick up the ending ofThe Predator, which saw the U.S government developing “Predator killer” technology to fight back against the super-hunter extraterrestrials.
Trachtenberg is an interesting choice to helm a Predator movie. 10 Cloverfield Lane is fantastic, but it’s also largely confined to one underground bunker, with the tension coming more from claustrophobia and paranoia. There is, however, one heck of a fight betweenMary Elizabeth Winsteadand an alien during the films' third act, so it’s not ahugestretch to imagine Trachtenberg taking on the iconic sci-fi creature. (Also, what isJohn Goodmanif not Hollywood’s most dangerous hunting machine?) The director has also tackled an episode of Amazon’sThe Boysand a pretty gnarly episode ofBlack Mirror, the Wyatt Russell-starring “Playtest.”
ThePredatorfranchise first started in 1987 as the story of an elite crew of U.S. army commandos—led by a peak-80s Arnold Schwarzenegger—are hunted down and killed one by one by an invisible monster intent on capturing Earth’s most dangerous prey. A sequel starring Danny Glover followed in 1990, but the Predators mostly stayed off Earth until 2010’sPredators, as well as twoAlien v. Predatorfilms in 2004 and 2007.
For more on the Predator franchise, here’s ourdeep-dive into whynone of the sequels ever quite lived up to the 1987 original. Here’s hoping Trachtenberg surprises us.
