Things have been quiet on the Predator front for a moment. And that isn’t always a good sign. But today we have some big news regarding the planned next installment in the series. Director Shane Black spoke with AFP about the long-awaited sequel and he suggested that principal photography would very likely begin by the fall. He told the outlet, “To the best of my knowledge, the train is rolling. It took some convincing because they’ve been putting out these movies all along with a $50-60 million budget, and they all had a guaranteed return. But there was never the sense that it was an event picture. It was more like ‘I understand another Predator is coming out — maybe we’ll see it maybe we won’t.’”
He continued by telling the outlet that he expect the project to shoot “in the latter part of the fall—September, October.”
We still don’t know if Arnold Schwarzenegger will be returning to the series or not. But we do know that Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson has suggested that he is in talks to star in the film. However, the rapper’s involvement has not been confirmed by anyone other than Fiddy himself.
The picture is scheduled for release March 2nd, 2018. It is a collaboration between writer Fred Dekker (The Monster Squad) and Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang). Decker made the announcement last year that he had finished his treatment of the script but things were fairly quiet on the Predator front for some time after that announcement. In the past few months, we have seen a teaser image released, a release date announced, and now a flurry of casting rumors are circulating. We still don’t know when production is slated to begin but with a release date announced, it’s likely that Black plans to begin lensing soon.
When the project was first announced, it was rumored that this would be a direct sequel to the first film, ignoring everything that came after it. And it seems as though that still may be the case. Stay tuned for more on this as it is announced!
