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It has a brilliant cast
Happily, the film looks set to devote a fair bit of time to the human side of the story, with Rodriguez keen to create a set of characters we’ll actually care about.
Playing a grizzled survivor who has been living on the planet for years, he’ll be in full-on badass mode, and with one sci-fi juggernaut under his belt already, could be just the man to bring a touch of gravitas to proceedings.
Topher Grace and Alice Braga flesh out a talented bunch, whilst there’s even a role for Rodriguez regular Danny Trejo, presumably as the uzi-wielding nutjob.
Rodriguez will act as producer and fanboy-in-chief
Despite having written the script, and acting as the film’s head cheerleader, Rodriguez will only be acting as producer on Predators .
“People love that series,” he says. “You tell people there’s a new Predator movie and they come running. (But) you can’t compete with Arnold Schwarzennegger, so it’s much better to go in the other direction and do something the audience isn’t expecting.”
The Predators have evolved
It’s been over 20 years since the original movie was released, and it looks like the Predators have evolved!
Specifics are still in short supply, but Rodriguez has promised his Predators will represent a general upgrade on the original model, describing them as, “an updated, nastier meaner breed.”
According to Laurence Fishburne, “it’s like the difference between dogs and wolves!” Remember to take a spare set of underwear…
It's a sequel, not a remake
The film will represent a direct follow-on from the original, with the script apparently name-checking events the audience will already be familiar with.
There will be plenty of splatter
Unsurprisingly, given Rodriguez’s previous output, Predators won’t pull any punches when it comes to the inevitable lashings of gore.
From the looks of the preview material, Predators will adopt the horror-movie tension of the original as opposed to the crash-bang-wallop action of the Alien vs Predator spin-offs.
Fox are apparently fully behind the more adult theme, with Rodriguez revealing the studio have even asked for a blood-spattered “unrated cut” for the DVD release. We're sure he'll be able to sort them out...
The Predators will look familiar
Creature effects will be headed up by Greg Nicotero, part of the team that designed the original Predator.
Crucially, the new Predators look a lot less cartoonish than recent incarnations, backing up the feeling that this will be a leaner, meaner sequel than its predecessors.
Rodriguez has gone back to basics
Although 3D was apparently discussed in production, Predators will not be taking the Avatar route, and will in fact be quite old-school in the way it’s filmed.
“There wasn’t a lot of green screen work”, says actor Walter Goggins. “That’s us in the scenes. There’s one shot that happened in real time, of a fall off a cliff down a waterfall, that no one — including me, if I hadn’t been there — will believe is real. It’s the most stunning shot I’ve ever seen.”
20th Century Fox want it to be cool...
According to Rodriguez, Fox told him that they wanted him to, "'make it a non-studio studio movie. Do it the way you do. Make it cool.' They just want a bitchin' movie. They really just want a great movie. That's all they want."
It could be the start of a new franchise...
Robert is reportedly very keen on the idea of Predators sequels. And, apparently, so are Fox...
Rodriguez says they told him, "they didn't like the direction they went before, but they know it's a great franchise.
It's like Jaws, no matter how many bad Jaws movies there are, you're always going to remember the original Jaws, it still has its power. You still want to recapture that spirit."
With just four months to go until the film’s July release date (it'll hit the UK on August 11), we’ll soon be able to see whether he's managed it. But at the risk of jinxing it, we’ve got a good feeling about this one…
