Predator
The current logo of the franchise.
Created by	Jim Thomas John Thomas
Original work	Predator (1987)
Owner	20th Century Fox
Print publications
Book(s)	Aliens/Predator: Panel to Panel (2006) Predator The Official Movie Special (2018) The Predator: The Art and Making of the Film (2018)
Novel(s)	List of Predator (franchise) novels
Comics	List of Predator (franchise) comics
Magazine(s)	Empire Classics - Alien: The Complete History of All 8 Films (2018)
Films and television
Film(s)	Original series Predator (1987) Predator 2 (1990) Predators (2010) The Predator (2018) Crossover series Alien vs. Predator (2004) Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)
Games
Role-playing	Predator: Concrete Jungle (2005)
Video game(s)	List of Alien, Predator, and Alien vs. Predator games

Predator is a science fiction horror action media franchise centered on the film series depicting mankind's encounters with a race of extraterrestrial hunter known as "the Predator". Produced and distributed by 20th Century Fox, the series began with Predator (1987), directed by John McTiernan, and was followed by three sequels, Predator 2 (1990), Predators (2010), and The Predator (2018), directed by Stephen Hopkins, Nimród Antal, and Shane Black, respectively. The series has led to numerous novels, comics, and video game spin-offs such as Predator: Concrete Jungle released in 2005 to generally mixed reviews. The Alien vs. Predator franchise combines the continuities of the Alien franchise with the Predator franchise, and consists of two films as well as varying series of comics, books and video games.

Background

Predator was John McTiernan's first studio film as director. The studio hired screenplay writer Shane Black to not only play a supporting role in the film, but to keep an eye on McTiernan due to the director's inexperience. Jean-Claude Van Damme was originally cast as the film's creature,^[1] the idea being that the physical action star would use his martial arts skills to make the creature an agile, ninja-esque hunter. When compared to Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers and Jesse Ventura, actors known for their bodybuilding regimes, it became apparent a more physically imposing man was needed to make the creature appear threatening. Eventually, Van Damme was removed from the film and replaced by the actor and mime artist Kevin Peter Hall.

The predator creature's design is credited to special effects artist Stan Winston. While flying to Japan with Aliens director James Cameron, Winston, who had been hired to design the Predator, was doing concept art on the flight. Cameron saw what he was drawing and said, "I always wanted to see something with mandibles". Winston then included them in his designs. Schwarzenegger recommended Winston after his experience working on The Terminator.

The film's creature was originally designed with a long neck, a dog-like head and a single eye. This design was abandoned when it became apparent that the jungle locations would make shooting the complex design too difficult. Originally, the studio contracted the makeup effects for the alien from Richard Edlund's Boss Film Creature Shop. However, with problems filming the creature in Mexico and attempts to create a convincing monster of Van Damme, wearing a much different body suit, failing, makeup effects responsibilities were given to Winston and his studio, R/Greenberg Associates. According to former Boss Film Creature Shop makeup supervisor Steve Johnson, the makeup failed because of an impractical design by McTiernan that included 12-inch (300 mm) length extensions that gave the creature a backward bent satyr-leg. The design did not work in the jungle locations. After six weeks of shooting in the jungles of Palenque, Mexico, the production had to shut down so that Winston could make the new creature. This took eight months and then filming resumed for five weeks.

The sound of the creature was provided by Peter Cullen. Despite his resolution not to voice any more monsters following injuries to his throat sustained during the ADR of King Kong, his agent convinced him to audition. The bubbling sound was inspired by a mixture of the visual of the creature and his recollection of a dying horseshoe crab.^[2]

R/Greenberg Associates created the film's optical effects, including the creature's ability to become invisible, its thermal vision point-of-view, its glowing blood, and the electric spark effects. The invisibility effect was achieved by having someone in a bright red suit (because it was the farthest opposite of the green of the jungle and the blue of the sky) the size of the creature. The take was then repeated without the actors using a 30% wider lens on the camera. When the two takes were combined optically, a vague outline of the alien could be seen with the background scenery bending around its shape. For the thermal vision, infrared film could not be used because it did not register in the range of body temperature wavelengths. The glowing blood was achieved by green liquid from chem-lite sticks used by campers. The electrical sparks were rotoscoped animation using white paper pin registered on portable light tables to black-and-white prints of the film frames. The drawings were composited by the optical crew for the finished effects.

Also, in an interview on Predator Special Edition, actor Carl Weathers said many of the actors would secretly wake up as early as 3 a.m. to work out before the day's shooting, in order to look "pumped" during the scene. Weathers also stated that he would act as if his physique was naturally given to him, and would work out only after all the other actors were nowhere to be seen. It was reported that actor Sonny Landham was so unstable on the set that a bodyguard was hired; not to protect Landham, but to protect the other cast members from him.

According to Schwarzenegger, filming was physically demanding as he had to swim in very cold water and spent three weeks covered in mud for the climactic battle with the alien. In addition, cast and crew endured very cold temperatures in the Mexican jungle that required heat lamps to be on all of the time. Schwarzenegger also faced the challenge of working with Kevin Peter Hall who could not see in the creature's suit. Hall could not see out of the mask and had to rehearse his scenes with it off and then memorize where everything was. The outfit was difficult to wear because it was heavy and off-balance.

The film was particularly successful and subsequently inspired a number of comic books, video games and popular anecdotes within the media. Schwarzenegger was asked to reprise his role in a Predator sequel, but was already attached to Terminator 2: Judgment Day and could not accept the role. The character was rewritten from the developing sequel's script, and the sequel to Predator, directed by Stephen Hopkins, was scheduled for 1990.

Due to excessive violence, Predator 2 was the first film to be given the newly instituted NC-17 rating in the United States. It was eventually rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America after being re-cut to its final theatrical length. The film cast Danny Glover in the lead role, and reprised Kevin Peter Hall as the Predator. Also, returning to the role of Anna in the sequel, Elpidia Carrillo was slated to be in two scenes but was cut back to a brief appearance on a video screen in the government agents' surveillance trailer. Her character is showing damage to the Central American jungle caused by the explosion at the conclusion of the first film.^{[citation needed]}

Films

Predator (1987)

An elite paramilitary rescue team, led by Major "Dutch" is on a covert operation in Central America when they encounter an alien who hunts them for sport.

Predator 2 (1990)

In 1997, a different Predator arrives in Los Angeles and begins hunting violent gang members, drawing the attention of the local police force. The creature itself is in turn being hunted by a secretive government task-force seeking to capture it for study.

Predators (2010)

In 2009, it was announced that Robert Rodriguez would relaunch the franchise.^[3] Rodriguez had written a script titled Predators before he had filmed Desperado. In 2009, 20th Century Fox studio executive Alex Young called Rodriguez to consider using his treatment as the basis of reviving the individual Predator franchise.^[4] Writer Alex Litvak was hired to write the screenplay.^[5] Nimród Antal was signed on to direct the film. The film follows an ensemble cast of characters including Royce (Adrien Brody), a mercenary who appears along with murderers and otherwise undesirable people in a Predator game preserve jungle planet .^[6] The film stars Adrien Brody,^[7] Alice Braga, Danny Trejo, Walton Goggins, Oleg Taktarov, Topher Grace,^[8] Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, Louis Ozawa Changchien^[9] and Laurence Fishburne.

The Predator (2018)

In June 2014, Fox announced that Shane Black would direct a sequel and co-write with Fred Dekker, and John Davis would produce.^[10] Davis has said of the film that he thought it was fresh and reimagined the franchise in a "different, interesting way".^[11] In February 2016, Black confirmed the title of the new sequel would be The Predator.^[12] It was slated for a March 2, 2018, release date.^[13] Schwarzenegger revealed to TheArnoldFans.com in an interview that he was discussing returning to the film as his character.^[14] Shane Black referred to the project as an event film that aims to elevate the Predator series: "It’s an attempt to ‘event-ise’ the Predator again... [An attempt to] make it more mysterious."^[15][16] Black also said that the film would mark a return to the "intimate" scale of the original film and that the film-makers hoped to achieve “the same sense of wonderment and newness that Close Encounters had when that came out.”^[16]

Shane Black confirmed that the film would be set in the present day and the eponymous character would have upgraded armor.^[17][18][19] Black also indicated that the film would not be a complete reboot as it would acknowledge the events of Predator and Predator 2.^[20] Filming was expected to commence in Vancouver in September 2016,^[21] with a projected release date of February 9, 2018.^{[16][22][23][24]} In September 2016, Benicio del Toro signed on to star in the film.^[25] The following month, Boyd Holbrook was in negotiations to replace del Toro, who departed due to scheduling issues.^[26] Filming was delayed to February 20, 2017.^[27] On November 3, 2016, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Olivia Munn was in talks to play a role.^[28] On November 21, 2016, Larry Fong was announced as the cinematographer for the film.^[29] In January 2017, Trevante Rhodes, Keegan-Michael Key and Jacob Tremblay joined the cast while Sterling K. Brown and Thomas Jane were in talks.^{[30][31][32][33][34]} Black announced on his Twitter account that filming began on February 20, 2017^[35] and wrapped up on June 2.^[36] Additional re-shoots in Vancouver started on March 12.^[37]

Future

The producer, John Davis, says that The Predator will set up two sequels that he hopes Shane Black will return to direct. Concerning this, Black stated that "I would love to say we've been planning a trilogy, but I take one day at a time, in motion-picture terms that's one movie at a time."^[38]

Cancelled projects

In 1994, Robert Rodriguez wrote an early script of the third Predator film for 20th Century Fox while he was working on Desperado.^[39] Rodriguez presented the script to the studio, but was denied when they realized that the budget would be too large.^[40] Fifteen years later, the studio decided to go with his script. Rodriguez stated:

It's the story from that script I had written way back then. They had hired me to write a Predator story while I was waiting to do Desperado back in 1995. It was crazy, this thing I came up with. So then fast-forward to now and, like, six months ago, they found the script and called me up. 'Hey, we want to redo this franchise and we found your old script. This is where we should have gone with the series! We want to move forward.' And that's what we're doing.^[41]

Nimród Antal had talked about a direct sequel to Predators and said he would love to do one. Rodriguez has said that he has interest in a sequel because of the large number of potential ideas the Predator planet setting provides:

There are so many great ideas… Just following Laurence Fishburne's character (Noland) around in a prequel would be a great movie. Just the tales he tells in this movie alone, I want to see those experiences… That's why I wasn't precious even about the original script I had, because once you come up with the idea of a Predator Planet, that Predators use as their hunting grounds and humans are involved somehow, the story ideas that you can come up with are so numerous that you can come up with any approach. So we already have several ideas that we can go with for a sequel. They would all be good ideas but we would probably put them together to see which one rises to the top, if we made another one.^[42]

In 2010, Rodriguez confirmed that there would eventually be a Predators sequel:

"[The studio] said, 'Let's do some other ones. What other story ideas do you have?'" says the filmmaker. "Because it was like, let's test out the market with this one. They really wanted it to be pretty contained, pretty scaled-back. They didn't want to put too many of the ideas into it that we could save for a second one. So we could see what the appetite was, because the bigger movie would actually be what comes following that. That kind of sets up a new storyline, new location and world, and then you can really go crazy from there."^[43]

Adrien Brody also spoke about reprising his role in a possible sequel:

"I think a lot of that is determined by the success of the film. And I don't think that far ahead. The idea of reprising the role and going farther into that character is interesting to me… It would be exciting to watch a character progress or deteriorate. That's exciting for an actor. I thoroughly enjoyed playing Royce. Again, part of the attraction is I'm oddly drawn to material that affects me on an emotional level, and characters that are dealing with things that are challenging that I would question, that I'm not so familiar with. Royce has his emotional arc in this that most of the characters I've played don't come close to possessing. That's an interesting thing to cultivate."^[44]

Crossover series

Inspired by the Dark Horse Comics series, the filmmakers of Predator 2 (1990) incorporated an easter egg in which an Alien skull was seen in a Predator trophy case. Expansions upon this shared universe between the Alien and Predator franchises followed, through comics and video games, until a film franchise was launched with the release of Alien vs. Predator in 2004, followed by the sequel Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem in 2007, which spawned various new comics, novels, video games, and other merchandise based upon or inspired by the films.

Alien vs. Predator (2004)

In 2004, a Predator mothership arrives in Earth orbit to draw humans to an ancient Predator training ground on Bouvetøya, an island about one thousand miles north of Antarctica. A buried pyramid giving off a "heat bloom" attracts a group of explorers led by billionaire and self-taught engineer Charles Bishop Weyland (Lance Henriksen), the original founder and CEO of Weyland Industries, who unknowingly activates an Alien egg production line as a hibernating Alien Queen is awakened within the pyramid. Three Predators descend unto the planet and enters the structure, killing all humans in their way with the intention of hunting the newly formed Aliens, while the scattered explorers are captured alive by Aliens and implanted with embryos. Two Predators die in the ensuing battle with an Alien. The third Predator allies itself with the lone surviving human, Alexa "Lex" Woods (Sanaa Lathan), while in their way out of the pyramid as it is destroyed by the Predator's wrist bomb and eventually battles with the escaped Alien Queen on the surface. The Queen is defeated by being dragged down by a water tower into the dark depths of the frozen sea, but not before she fatally wounds the last Predator. The orbiting Predator mothership uncloaks and the crew retrieves the fallen Predator. A Predator elder gives Lex a spear as a sign of respect, and then departs. Once in orbit it is revealed that an Alien Chestburster was present within the corpse, thus a Predalien hybrid is born.

Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem (2007)

Set immediately after the events of the previous film, the Predalien hybrid aboard the Predator scout ship, having just separated from the mothership shown in the previous film, has grown to full adult size and sets about killing the Predators aboard the ship, causing it to crash in the small town of Gunnison, Colorado. The last surviving Predator activates a distress beacon containing a video recording of the Predalien, which is received by a veteran Predator on the Predator homeworld, who sets off towards Earth to "clean up" the infestation. When it arrives, the Predator tracks the Aliens into a section of the sewer below the town. He removes evidence of their presence as he moves along using a corrosive blue liquid and uses a laser net to try to contain the creatures, but the Aliens still manage to escape into the town above. The Predator fashions a plasma pistol from its remaining plasma caster and hunts Aliens all across town, accidentally cutting the power to the town in the process. During a confrontation with human survivors, the Predator loses its plasma pistol. The Predator then fights the Predalien singlehandedly, and the two mortally wound one another just as the US air force drops a tactical nuclear bomb on the town, incinerating both combatants along with the Predalien's warriors and hive, as well as the few remaining humans in the town. The salvaged plasma pistol is then taken to a Ms. Yutani of the Yutani Corporation, foreshadowing an advancement in technology leading to the future events of the Alien films.

Future

Colin and Greg Strause were adamant that they wanted to develop Alien vs. Predator 3 during the production of Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. They essentially sought to make an AVP-film in space and set in the future, but by the time they were hired, 20th Century Fox had already decided to go with Salerno’s script set on Earth. They incorporated elements of their ideas into the second film, such as the Predator home planet. ADI duo Tom Woodruff and Alec Gillis were also contenders for the director’s chair. Having worked on the special effects in each movie since Aliens, Tom Woodruff revealed in April 2008 that he and Alec Gillis had aspirations to direct Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem themselves.^[45][46]

In 2008, according to the horror news-website ShockTillYouDrop, “An anonymous source over at 20th Century Fox got in touch with us over the weekend to relay the news another Aliens vs. Predator sequel is a ‘certainty’ at this point. If you recall, the brothers Strause – who helmed the Christmas release Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem – stated Fox was going to take a ‘wait-and-see’ approach to a third chapter, furthermore, that the story would have to continue in space.”^[47][48][49]

On September 21, 2008, Collider published an exclusive interview with John Davis (the producer of both AVP films) and he stated, "I think we’ve logically done what we could’ve done with the two AVP movies. But I think there’s something to go back to with Predator."^[50]

On October 28, 2010, io9 published an exclusive interview with the Brothers Strause in which they revealed that Alien vs. Predator 3 would have led directly into Alien. Greg Strause stated that, "The original ending for AVPR, that we pitched them, ended up on the Alien homeward [sic], and actually going from the Predator gun, that you see at the end, it was going to transition from that gun to a logo of a Weyland-Yutani spaceship that was heading to an alien planet. And then we were actually going to cut down to the surface [of the alien planet] and you were going to see a hunt going on. It was going to be a whole tribe of predators going against this creature that we called "King Alien." It's this huge giant winged alien thing. And that was going to be the lead-in, to show that the fact that the Predator gun [at the end of AVPR] is the impetus of all the technological advancements that allowed humans to travel in space. Which leads up to the Alien timeline."

When asked about the ending sequence of Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, that the Predator-weapon handed to Ms. Yutani would lead to us humans developing advanced space travel technology, Greg stated, "That was the idea. They never got any of the equipment from the first Predators. It's the first time they ever received any intact working technology left over. So they could take that and reverse engineer, figure out what the power source was – all of those things. And in theory, that would enable that company [Weyland-Yutani] to make massive advancements in technology and dominate the space industry. That was the whole idea, was to literally continue from Ms. Yutani getting the gun – and then cut to 50 years in the future, and there's spaceships now. We've made a quantum leap in space travel. That was going to set up the ending, which would then set up what AVP was going to be, which would take place 100 years in the future. That was kind of the plan."^[51]

In 2012, What Culture stated that "surely sometime in the near future we will see a third attempt at an AVP movie" and listed five major reasons that would make a third sequel work – namely the inclusion of Colonial Marines, a strong lead character, no Predators teaming-up with humans, memorable action sequences, as well as a great director.^[52]

In 2015, having worked on the special effects of Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, VFX make-up artist David Woodruff (the son of Tom Woodruff who worked on both the Alien- and Terminator-franchises) participated in an interview with TheTerminatorFans, and when asked about the situation of a third chapter in the AVP-trilogy, he stated, "I haven’t heard anything about a 3rd installment, not even rumors. This Neill Blomkamp project is the first possibility I’ve seen or heard of another Alien film and I’m all about it. I know the guys at Amalgamated Dynamics are pushing for something like this too. It’s time."^[53]

In 2015, during the London Film and Comic Con, Sigourney Weaver stated that she asked to have Ripley killed in Alien 3 because she knew that Fox were moving forward with Alien vs. Predator.^[54] Peter Briggs (writer of Alien vs. Predator) responded by praising all films in the franchise and pointing out that the AVP-films were more successful than Weaver's last two Alien-films, and noting that "There’s a terrific Alien vs. Predator movie still to be made by someone. It just hasn’t happened yet."^[55]

In mid-2018, Shane Black, director of The Predator, tweeted his belief that a third Alien vs. Predator can still happen.^[56] A ComicBookRumours.com article from July suggested Fox may attempt an "AVP Cinematic Universe" after Ridley Scott finishes making the Alien prequels, after which Fox considered a "soft reboot" to the Alien series with new/original characters, a new setting, and new timeline,^[57][58] which the same article also suggested, if it were to happen, could potentially take place within the same continuity as the Predator films and AVP films, noting Predators featured an Alien skull cameo (along with other references to Aliens)^[59][60], Prometheus featured Weyland Industries from AVP in the script and various promotional material, Alien: Covenant featured references and classified information on the Predators/Yautja (among other keywords) on the MU/TH/UR 6000 online interface, and The Predator underwent reshoots to have Lex's Alien spear (along with other references) from the first AVP appear in the film at some point.^[61][62] An alternate ending for The Predator displaying a Weyland-Yutani Corp pod containing Ripley and Newt (both played by Breanna Watkins) wearing a Weyland-Yutani breathing apparatus shaped like an Alien Facehugger was also intended to further connect to the Alien films.^{[63][64][65][66][67][68][69]}

Cast and characters

Additional crew & production details

Reception

Box office

Critical response

Home video releases

Other media

There have been a number of spin-offs in other media including a large number of crossovers within the Aliens/Predator fictional universe.

Novels

Movie novelizations

• Predator by Paul Monette, Jove Books, June 1, 1987, ISBN 0-515-09002-6
• Predator 2 by Simon Hawke, Jove Books, December 1990, ISBN 0-515-10578-3
• The Predator: Hunters and Hunted by James A. Moore, Titan Books, July, 31, 2018 ISBN 978-1785658051
• The Predator by Christopher Golden & Mark Morris, Titan Books, September 2018, ISBN 978-1785658051

Original novels

• Predator: Concrete Jungle by Nathan Archer
• Predator: Cold War by Nathan Archer
• Predator: Big Game by Sandy Schofield
• Predator: Forever Midnight by John Shirley
• Predator: Flesh and Blood by Michael Jan Friedman
• Predator: Turnabout by Steve Perry
• Predator: South China Sea by Jeff VanderMeer
• Predator: Prey to the Heavens by John Arcudi and Javier Saltares
• The Predator: Hunters and Hunted by James A. Moore
• Aliens vs. Predator
  • Alien vs. Predator: The Movie Novelization by Marc Cerasini, HarperEntertainment, July 2004, ISBN 0-06-073537-6
  • Aliens vs. Predator: Prey by Steve Perry
  • Aliens vs. Predator: Hunter's Planet by Dave Bischoff
  • Aliens vs. Predator: War by S.D. Perry

Comics

Dark Horse Comics published a line based on the franchise.

• Predators (2010 prequel comic)
• Predators (2010 sequel comic)
• Predator: Fire and Stone
• Predator: Life and Death

Books

Other books expanding this fictional universe has been released through the years, and also such that depict the background to the films, including works by special effects company Amalgamated Dynamics Incorporated (ADI) which has worked with both the Alien, Predator, and Alien vs. Predator films.

• Aliens/Predator: Panel to Panel (2006)
• Predator The Official Movie Special (2018)
• The Predator: The Art and Making of the Film (2018)

Video games

• Predator: Concrete Jungle (2005)

The Predator also was a downloadable character in Mortal Kombat X (2015).

Boardgames

• Legendary Encounters: A Predator Deck Building Game (2015)^[94][95]

See also

• Alien franchise
• Alien vs. Predator franchise
• List of space science fiction franchises
• Predatoroonops, a genus of spider named after the Predator

References

Further reading

• Beautiful Monsters: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to the Alien and Predator Films (by David A. McIntee, Telos, 272 pages, 2005, ISBN 1-903889-94-4)

External links

• Official website
• "Behind the scenes of the Predator stop-motion holiday special". Entertainment Weekly