While at this year’s Comic-Con, I got to sit down withThe Predatorwriter-directorShane Blackfor an extended video interview. As a huge fan of both his writing and directing (he’s previously helmedKiss Kiss Bang Bang,Iron Man 3, andThe Nice Guys), I’m counting down the days till I can see the next installment of thePredatorfranchise on September 14th. In the sequel,Jacob Tremblayaccidentally brings the Predators crawling back to Earth when he discovers a piece of their technology — and naturally, the intergalactic mercenaries bring a whole lot of violent chaos with them. Written byFred Dekkerand Shane Black, The Predator also starsBoyd Holbrook,Trevante Rhodes,Keegan-Michael Key,Olivia Munn,Sterling K. Brown,Alfie Allen,Thomas Jane,Augusto Aguilera,Jake Busey,andYvonne Strahovski.
As some of you know, after seeing the film put together, the studio decided the film needed to make some changes in the form of reshoots (additional photography). Whilewe previously reportedthe reshoots were to fix the 3rdact, it was unclear what parts needed changing. So when I spoke to Black at Comic-Con, I specifically asked what they did in the reshoots. He revealed the original 3rdact of the film took place in the daytime and they all realized it didn’t work because it wasn’t scary. So they reshoot the ending to have it take place at night, streamlined the story, and made sure the Predator was something you’d be terrified to see.
Based on the buzz I’m hearing, the reshoots worked and we’re in for a great ride.
During the rest of the interview Black talked about the editing process, balancing the mythology versus just letting someone’s imagination take over, if he knows what he’ll do afterThe Predator, having sequel ideas forThe Nice Guys, and more.
Finally, towards the end of the interview, he played “Ice Breakers”. If you haven’t yet seen it, it’s a fun game that includes questions like which TV show you would want to play a guest spot on, favorite sci-fi/fantasy movie, which film scared you as a kid, what you collect, if you own any movie/TV show props, what’s your phone background photo, and more.
Shane Black:
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