Six Films That DREDD Director Pete Travis Should Tackle Next

Dredd has to be one of the best R-rated action flicks I've seen in a long time. District 9 being the last film that was as entertaining as Dredd was. It wasn't a paint-by-numbers action flick like Expendables 2 or even watered down like Taken 2. The film took cues from the original Robocop and Total Recall films, serious action in a surreal science fiction world. It's been even longer since we've seen a solid/fun R-rated comic book film. I've come up a few other projects that director Pete Travis should be considered for. Keep Travis in mind Fox, Sony, Warner Bros. and Dreamworks because he's the next Matthew Vaughn.

DEUS EX: CBS Films has optioned the rights to make a film based on the recent video game. Considering it would be a smaller production and would need a talent like Travis to beef up the film's apperence without spending a boat-load of money he could manage it. As Dredd's budget was in the range of $45 million which is slightly more than half of a terrible Adam Sandler comedy. Pete could build the world for Deus Ex from the ground up and make it his own.

METAL GEAR SOLID: Sony along with producer Avi Arad (Iron Man, X-Men 1-3, Spider-Man) recently announced that a Metal Gear Solid film is finally in the works. Christopher Nolan might be the creator Hideo Kojima's choice but they'll have to lower their standards considering it's a video game franchise. If given a solid script I assume Pete could give us a decent take on Snake. However, it's unknown if a script is in place but it would be nice to see Hideo involved. Not that the quality is there with Sony's Resident Evil films but they are a successful R-rated video game film franchise. Which could help influence the rating come budget discussions.

GHOST IN THE SHELL: Dreamworks and Steven Spielberg have been trying to develop a Ghost In The Shell film for years now. They've had screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis (Shutter Island, Avatar) working on it for ages now. It had been confirmed by Laeta that the adaptation would be influenced by the original manga not the anime films. While Dreamworks mostly makes family friendly film it's possible they could aim to please the fans by including it's adult material. Pete proved he can handle developing an arc for a female character (Anderson) within an action setting, a rare task these days.

NINJA SCROLL: Appian Way, who also tried to develop an Akira film holds the film rights currently. They were a little more faithful with their adaptation announcement stating the production would be filmed in Japan with Japanese actors. A bold statement considering all the liberties they and Warner Bros. took with changing the entire identity of Akira (now in limbo). Warner Bros. hired Watchmen scribe Alex Tse to develop a script back in 2010 but since then no word on it's development. While this is more of a fantasy film it has enough action that could be helped by Travis, plus it doesn't hurt to switch up genres slightly.

HARD BOILED: The Dark Horse comic is ultra-violent an is about a troubled tax collector called Nixon who realizes that his life is nothing like what it seems and he is a man of metal, like some kind of robot doing the bidding of a dark organization. Frank Miller is currently developing the script for Warner Bros. there had been talk of him directing. However, after The Spirit those talks have likely ended. That said, his relationship with the studio is still solid with his comic Xerxes being the basis of the 300 sequel 300: Rise of An Empire. I think a Frank Miller/Pete Travis team up could be something special. The art from Hard Boiled reminded me of Robocop meets Judge Dredd, so it's hard not to connect the two gentlemen.

PREDATORS 2: Like Dredd, Predators was a reboot of sorts. The only thing is that Judge Dredd was a flop while Predator and it's reboot Predators (somewhat) were successful. It comes down to a personal interest to see what Pete Travis could do within the Predator universe. Ridley Scott is already planning his Prometheus sequel Paradise and Fox should take advantage of the rekindled interest in their R-rate science fiction. There had been word from producer/writer Robert Rodriguez the studio had interest in making a sequel to Predators but that was awhile back now. My main problem with the film is how they rushed things and hired Nimrod not Rodriguez. Instead of waiting for Robert to direct and Arnold Schwarzenegger to make his return as Dutch.

Arnold is back making films along with returning to the Terminator and Conan franchises. It's only a matter of time before we start hearing rumblings he's getting for another shot at Predator. Originally, Robert's Predator sequel had Dutch on the Predator world which seems like a excellent way to move the series forward. It also included humans using Predator technology which could help even the playground a bit. What I'd like to see is Pete considered for the directing gig while Arnold returns as Dutch pushing more of a science fiction aspect of the franchise. There were some solid elements from the AVP comics that could inspire the next installment. Including a civil war among the predator clans not to mention what happens when a group of humans get their hands on predator-tech for their own use. Having "worthy" humans inducted into the clans by testing their wit/might against dangerous alien creatures.

FILMS THAT SHOULD BE MADE: PREDATORS 2

It's been almost two years since the release of Predators. As Prometheus rolled into theaters this weekend I couldn't help but think, where is our Predators sequel? Robert Rodriguez and director Nimród Antal had been talking mentions a string of new Predator films being  but have since moved on to other projects. 20th Century Fox had invested $40m for the production which ended up making around $150m in box office and DVD/BluRay sales. Not bad for a low budget action flick but they'll likely have to amp things up for the studio to be willing to shell out more money.

"[The first film] sets up a new storyline, new location and world, and then you can really go crazy from there....[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."

PREDATOR WAR: One thing that was hinted at during Predators is a full scale war among the predator clans. We saw a bit of this clash between the two predators and the tail-end. Predator culture for the most part has been a mystery to audiences. A sequel could explore this slightly more and a clash among clans would be something explosive to see.

There was an epic shot in the original trailer with Adrien Brody having a massive amount of predator laser targets lit up on him. This would later be revealed as a marketing trick as it ended up being only one target in the actual film. If we don't see a war at the very least they can amp up the sequel by increasing the amount of predators running around ala Aliens.

HUMANS WITH PREDATOR/ALIEN TECH: With the predator camp wiped out their cloaking devices and weapons are open game. Robert Rodriguez's original Predator sequel script (that didn't end up getting used) included a group of humans using predator gear. This could be an interesting aspect seeing humans brought to the planet arming themselves with cloaking devices and weapons. Waiting for the next horde of hunters to land their ship. This had been teased with Noland banding together whatever scraps he could find over the years. I don't see the AVP comics great source material but they have an interesting human/predator character Machinko.

THE RETURN OF DUTCH: Robert Rodriguez has stated that Predators would be a smaller film compared to the next film which would have bigger action sequences. It's not saying much considering Predators showed it's lack of budget from the get-go. The predators were really the draw of the film since they didn't have a real action star to headline the picture. Schwarzenegger had originally been wanted for a role but would later go to Laurence Fishburne playing Noland. Arnold is now back grinding out action films and had originally announced plans to be involved with a Predator reboot when he exited the governor's mansion.

"Well, first of all it's more like 15 films, obvious ones from The Terminator to remakes of Predator and The Running Man and all of those things. Then also a lot of original stuff too. But I am also packaging a Comic Book character right now. I'm going to announce that sometime by the end of March or the beginning of April."

His character Dutch factored in Robert's Predator sequel spec-script but that screenplay was reworked for Predators. There had been a giant plot including Dutch being taken to the Predator homeworld to entertain the population in gladiator area pitted against deadly aliens. Producer John Davis had talked to Collider giving the impression that Arnold could be back for the next installment if it ever get's made.

"If we were going to do it with Arnold; it was like, “Does it make sense to go back and to put him with a young team?” So maybe it’s 20 years later, you have retired, and you are the one person who has survived one of these encounters. Is that a reboot in the fact that you are in it with a group of young guys? Is that a reboot? You just have to figure out a way to reboot it. Rodriguez rebooted it. It’s all in the planet. The sequel to the first one rebooted it. We should’ve had Arnold in the movie. The deal broke down over $250,000, which is a shame. But it was moved from the jungle to the city. You have to create a freshness about it. When we did Alien vs. Predator we kind of rebooted it because we put the two pieces together. You just have to give it enough time to come up with a new freshness. It is what they did so brilliantly with Fast Five."

RODRIGUEZ COULD DIRECT IN 3D: Although Nimród Antal directed the last installment Fox might concerned he won't be able to amp up the action for the sequel. It might be a sticking point for Rodriguez to direct for the film to move forward. Fox will have a long wait on their hands as Robert will be shooting Machete Kills, Sin City 2: A Dame To Kill For and Fire And Ice this year alone.

"I haven't talked to [20th Century Fox] in a while. I know they liked the idea of doing another one," he explained. "I should probably call and check in. I've just been busy doing these other things."

We've been seeing a rather large rise in R rated films getting the 3D treatment. Only a few are actually shooting in the format like Prometheus and the upcoming Dredd (Judge Dredd reboot). Robert had been a pioneer in the early days of the 3D revival and will be shooting Sin City 2 in the updated format. 3D conversations are usally giant studio cash-graps by boosting the ticket prices. However, a film like a Predators sequel could really optimize the experience if shot using that camera system.