2007 was a bad year for the ‘Predator’ franchise. With two cult films under it’s belt, the series hadn’t quite received the shot of adrenaline in the arm it had been hoping for from a long awaited big screen face-off with it’s ‘Alien’ cousins, but had nevertheless decided to give the team-up another try with Aliens vs Predator: Requiem. The result was a disaster, a tonally incoherent movie that tried to cherry pick and replicate the highlights of both franchises, whilst adding some truly awful new twists. ‘Requiem’ was both a critical and financial car crash, and marked the lowest career point for both legendary characters.
Things subsequently improved slightly in 2010 with the Robert Rodriguez reboot, ‘Predators’. But whilst that film made three times it’s budget, it failed to garner much love from audiences, with most fan-feedback criticizing the casting of Adrien Brody over a more charismatic lead role. So whilst the ‘Aliens’ have steadily continued their way down the road to reboot, there had been no new outings for everybody’s favourite skin-removing space hunter.
That all changed last year with the announcement that Shane Black, now enjoying a very public resurgence with his script work on ‘Iron Man 3’ and ‘The Other Guys’, would be writing and directing a new fourth movie in the series. The fact that Black had played Hawkins in the original movie was seized on as an assurance for success, and the rumor mill immediately went into overdrive when it was announced that the movie would not be a reboot, but would follow on from the original three entries in the series. Both Arnie and Danny Glover were teased as being approached to participate, with fans desperate to find out what happened to Dutch Schaefer and Mike Harrigan following their run-ins with the claw-popping killers.
Now, at time of writing, there’s been no further confirmation on either of these original cast members rejoining the franchise. There also remains the sticky problem for Shane Black in trying to find a leading man to replicate the success that the original ones enjoyed, and to try and avoid another Adrien Brody situation. So far, Internet rumor has pointed towards the movie trying to find a physical match for Arnie, with wrestler John Cena and franchise-viagra Dwayne Johnson both suggested. And then this week, it’s been rumored that former Punisher actor Thomas Jane has now joined the project.
Whilst perhaps not as physically impactive as Arnie, Tom Jane is enjoying something of a comeback following his work on the brilliant TV series ‘The Expanse’. Despite Jon Bernthal’s amazing success as the new Frank Castle, Jane remains a firm Marvel fan-favourite, with his ‘Dirty Laundry’ short film the stuff of YouTube legend. If the rumour is true, he’d also be joining a couple of other former Marvel actors, as Olivia Munn (Psylocke) and Boyd Holbrook (Donald Pierce) have already been formally announced as having roles in the movie. Originally, Benicio Del Toro (The Collector) had also been attached, but had been forced to drop out due to his ongoing Star Wars and Marvel commitments.
With a working title of ‘The Predator’, and the tagline “You’ll never see him coming”‘ the movie is due to release in March 2018, with filming due to take place in Vancouver between February and May 2017. Needless to say, as more details about the project surface, we’ll be sure to bring them straight to you as we get them.
Source: THR
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