AUSTIN, Texas – One of the most-loved killers from '80s sci-fi is back, and he's nastier and more brutal than ever.
Producer Robert Rodriguez and director Nimrod Antal screened first-look footage of Predators Friday night for 200 or so lucky attendees on the opening night of the South by Southwest Film Festival and Conference, then talked at length about returning the franchise to the character-driven feel of 1987's classic Predator. (In the photo above, Nimrod, left, and Rodriguez stand in front of production art for Predators during the special screening.)
The Predators in the upcoming film, due in July, are part of a new tribe we haven't met yet, the duo said during the packed screening. As in the original film, every Predator is a trophy hunter and an expert in stalking and killing its prey, but each monster has its own specialized skill. There's a falconer Predator who has a little UAV that serves as its eyes in the sky, a dog handler Predator (we got to see production art of its dog, sort of a dinosaur-wolf hybrid) and a "Super Predator" the production team refers to as "Mr. Black."
You can view additional images from the screening, as well as a behind-the-scenes video from Rodriguez that includes footage shown Friday, below.
As seen in the production art, the aliens all look familiar, with the same dreadlocks, fearsome mandibles and bad-ass body armor of the original. But everything has been updated – there's new weaponry, new armor, and an overall sleeker look.
"If the original was the 8-track version," said Rodriguez, "then these are the iPod versions."
Rodriguez was given the chance to write a sequel to 1987's Predator back in 1996. He wrote a script, flirted with the idea of directing it and even got to pitch it to Arnold Schwarzenegger. The project never saw the light of day (Schwarzenegger wasn't interested), so Rodriguez forgot about it until last year when 20th Century Fox dug it up, realized it was sitting on a golden opportunity and asked him to make it.
And so Predators was born. Rodriguez didn't direct it, instead taking a producer's role and enlisting Kontroll director Antal to helm the shooting.
We got to see two trailers, a short clip of the film and dozens of production illustrations done by the lead artists at Rodriguez's Troublemaker Studios. To prevent people from leaking any of the footage to the web, there were infrared cameras set up throughout downtown Austin's intimate Alamo Ritz theater.
Based on the clips, trailers and a lengthy talk by Rodriguez and Antal, here's what we know about the film.
A band of humans are transported to a jungle planet that's been set up by the Predators to serve as a sort of game preserve. The Predators were frustrated that the humans had gotten the better of them in previous meetings, so they decided to turn this planet into a hunting ground, a place where they can study the humans, hunt them and kill them, and in the process, learn their ways.
The humans are strangers to one another when they arrive, but they all have one thing in common: They are all ruthless killers. Among the hunted are a yakuza assassin (Louis Ozawa Changchien), a black-ops agent (Alice Braga), an army serviceman (Adrian Brody) and a convicted murderer who was just days away from execution when he was sent to the planet. Each character has his or her own particular talent, and they quickly realize that if they band together and work as a team, they can outwit the Predators and survive. But none of them are exactly the cooperative type, so keeping egos in check for the sake of the greater good is a challenge.
The film's plot, it was noted, is an homage to Richard Connell's short story, "The Most Dangerous Game." Rodriguez originally wrote Predators before any of the Alien vs. Predator films, so it doesn't really reference those story lines.
There are actually two tribes of Predators on the planet, but Rodriguez and Nimrod were sketchy about how exactly both of them are represented in the movie. What we did learn is that, like the humans, each Predator has its own personality and its own hunting technique. Since each Predator has a unique hunting technique, every time one of the humans meets his or her demise in the film, the kill scene is handled differently. Rodriguez and Antal promised several really bloody and unique kill scenes.
"We went out of our way to stay true to the fact that they are hunters," Antal said. There were some kills in the script Antal wasn't sure they'd be able to include without losing the film's R rating because they were so over-the-top and bloody. But Fox encouraged him to shoot them anyway so they could be included on the unrated DVD.
Also, there are no computer-generated Predators. All of the alien characters were done with actors, suits and animatronics, a fact that drew a cheer from the crowd. It's all about being able to see the actors' eyes, Antal said during a press briefing Saturday.
The original Predator from the first movie also makes a cameo appearance in the new film.
Rodriguez went the extra mile and hired Greg Nicotero, the effects artist from the original Predator film, to design and build the monsters for the new movie. Nicotero joined the duo onstage and even brought out the original Predator head. He set it up on the edge of the stage and let everyone in the theater get up close to it and take a picture.
The team showed us two trailers, one that concentrated on the action sequences and a longer one that gave us a bit more insight into the human characters. The first trailers will be released next week, playing in front of Repo Men.
We also got to see a short, two-minute clip from the movie. Brody and the other humans have just killed one of the Predators in the jungle, and as they regroup and talk about what their next step should be, they realize they are being watched.
It was very rough footage – "straight off the Avid," Rodriguez said – but it was humorous and displayed that playful, chewy dialogue Rodriguez is known for.
Predators will be released in July.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqJnYvqFvLk
