IRON MAN 3's Shane Black Directing New PREDATOR Sequel, Will Schwarzenegger Return?

It sounds like Fox isn't waiting around for Robert Rodriguez's Predators sequel. THR reports that Iron Man 3 and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang director Shane Black (Lethal Weapon, Last Boy Scout) will return to his early career roots, by directing a new Predator film. His Monster Squad partner Fred Dekker (Tales From The Crypt, Night of The Creeps) will handle the scripting duties with Black helping with the treatment. Black had a supporting role in the original film, and even wrote an early draft that was never used.

Collider adds that Fred Dekker and Black will be scripting the film as a sequel, rather than a reboot. Expanding on existing mythology setup by the original films. This could leave the door open to have Danny Glover or Arnold Schwarzenegger return. There had been ideas from Robert Rodriguez to have Glover and Arnold's characters taken to the Predator homeworld to battle aliens in a gladiator arena. It's unknown if that's the angle for this new film, but with Arnold reprising his classic roles (Terminator, Conan, Twins), returning as Dutch wouldn't be very shocking. Arnold was originally set to cameo in Predators, but had to turn it down and Laurence Fishburne took the part instead. Let's not forget that Shane and Arnold worked together on Last Action Hero.

Fox has a sequel to Prometheus about to begin production too. Could we see all these worlds eventually connected? Or, at the very least better connected, than the horrible AVP films? We should forget those movies ever happened and expect the studio trying to at least have all these films connected. Ridley Scott has already connected Prometheus to Blade Runner, by having Eldon Tyrell as the mentor of Peter Weyland. This establishes the cinematic universe is also connected that franchise as well, which is also getting a sequel.

While having the xenomorphs, predators, engineers and replicants existing in the same universe, but not exactly interacting/fighting each other. Darkhorse Comics is already putting together a series of comics, which connects all the films (Alien, Prometheus and Predator). Connecting the sci-fi horror franchises could be a good idea, but needs to be executed properly. Shane Black has experience with grand mythology and expanding film universes, dipping his toes into the MCU with Iron Man 3.

We recently heard from Sigourney Weaver that she wants to play Ripley again in Alien 5. Considering Fox is pushing forward with so many sci-fi projects, they'll finally give fans an end to the main Alien saga. The studio hasn't commented on this, but I'm sure they're strongly considering it. Since Weaver will be appearing in all three of the Avatar sequels, her awareness will be pushed into the international markets again. Originally, Prometheus was set to be a two-part feature, ending with the second film. Having Ripley return and complete her story would make sense post-Prometheus 2.


SOURCE: THR

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.

Don Cheadle Says Iron Man 3 Is Action Packed

Don Cheadle talked to AccessHollywood about the upcoming production of Iron Man 3. He revealed he saw a draft of the script which was "more action packed". Also that the interplay between Tony and Rhodey is more "dynamic". Don confirmed that production on the third installment will start in May. Iron Man 3 will be in theaters May 3rd 2013 so I guess post-production will have to be a speedy one.

Iron Man at it's core is a character piece set in a comic book world. My biggest problem with the Iron Man franchise is that the action set pieces were either too few or or too quick. The first Iron Man sort of nailed the action scenes but didn't have a real threat to Iron Man until the end. That scene being the quickest and somewhat sloppiest of the whole picture. Iron Man 2 had a lot of issues but the action scenes were more like flashes and I didn't feel invested in their outcome. Having Shane Black behind the script should instill the idea that this will end up bigger and better. Black knows action better than most in Hollywood as he was involved in creating the Lethal Weapon series. He was even apart of the Predator cast as an actor which is considered another classic of the genre.