The way director Shane Black sees it, The Predator is a throwback to the 1980s — a time when movies like the original of this series and others like Aliens pushed the boundaries and made the science fiction genre cool.
It’s not so much about the special effects and the overuse of computer generated imaging that the comic book genre of movies has become so dependent on, but more about the story, the heroes, and a really cool plot that was fun to make and watch.
“The trouble with a lot of movies in the comic book genre is that they use too many shots that make them resemble more like a video game,” he tells Gulf News tabloid!, relaxing in a Madrid hotel. “I wanted to make a movie where the camera angles were more normal.”
And he certainly succeeded. Black has written such films as Lethal Weapon and its sequel, along with The Monster Squad, The Last Boy Scout, Last Action Hero and The Long Kiss Goodnight. As an actor, he’s probably best known for his role as the wise-cracking Rick Hawkins in Predator, the original 1987 movie. That starred Arnold Schwartzenegger, and was followed by Predator 2 in 1990 and AVP: Alien vs Predator in 2004.
But The Predator now marks a very exciting reboot, one that will see a sequel come too. And certainly, it pays homage to its original scary and bloody roots, with Black even offering Schwartzeneggar a small role in the current offering.
“It was a small role,” Black says. “Arnie looked at it and felt it wasn’t right for him.”
Don’t miss it!
The Predator releases in the UAE on September 13.
