Iron Man 3 director Shane Black has agreed to direct the first film in what will be a reboot of the Predator franchise.
THR reports that Black has also been tapped to write the script for the first Predator film, which will be a reboot of a franchise that’s been dragged through the last three decades.
Black is set to relaunch the sci-fi/alien franchise after his recent success with Iron Man 3.
While Predator was being released in 1987, Shane Black was working on his popular ’80s films Lethal Weapon and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Predator featured a star-studded cast, which included a young Arnold Schwarzenegger.
20th Century Fox has been keeping the franchise alive by releasing a Predator sequel every few years, but they’ve always fallen short of the first film. But with Shane Black at the helm of the reboot, we have some faith that the quality of the script will be improved.
An interesting fact about Black and Predator is that he actually appeared in a very small role in the original film in 1987. The studio actually asked him to “polish the script” for them, which was already in pre-production, but Black would turn them down.
A few weeks later the studio asked Black again for some script help and Black again don’t them he wasn’t interested. After some more time went by, 20th Century called Black once more and told him that there was actually a small role in the movie and they were wondering if he was interested in taking the role.
Shane Black said yes, and that’s how he would end up having a small role in the original Predator. The kicker was, when he arrived on set, the studio greeted him by saying, “By the way, would you mind taking a look at the script?”
Black was upset and explained that he was still not interested in rewriting the script for them, but he did get his small role in the film. Predator would go on to be a massive success, pulling in nearly $100 million on a $15 million dollar budget.
While it’s been a while since a good Predator film was released, we’re interested now that Black is involved. He’s a solid director/writer and has proved himself with Iron Man 3, which pulled in $1.2 billion, so we’re excited to see that this will be his next project.
Update: Director Shane Black has revealed that his Predator film is set to be a sequel, not a reboot of the franchise.
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