10 Things You Didn’t Know About Predators
For my entire life, or as much as I can remember, I’ve been a die hard fan of the action film genre. So much so that anyone who knows me closely knows that my favorite movie of all time is Predator. I don’t remember what year it was that I first saw it but I know that I had a copy of it that I recorded off of television that I watched with so much regularity that I eventually had to buy an actual copy of the VHS tape after I wore it down like some porn addict and his favorite scene. I will never try to argue that it’s the greatest movie ever made (although it is amazing), but it doesn’t need to be the greatest thing since sliced bread (seriously, there have been so many better inventions than sliced bread) to be considered a favorite.
So I waited with much anticipation when I heard that Robert Rodriguez would be bringing a new Predator film into the world and that it would primarily be a sequel to the original. Bob, you have my attention.
Fast forward several years later and I’ve seen and enjoyed the newest interpretation about the alien hunters. It wasn’t exactly a 450 foot opposite field home run but it was entertaining and it held to many of the ideas that were first laid out in the groundbreaking Predator back in 1987. Now, after some research and further viewings, I think I may have exposed a few new tidbits that casual fans may not have known. Lucky for you I’ll tell you all about it. This is…
10 Things You Didn’t Know About Predators
1. Originally the filmmakers were going to open the film with an intro to Adrien Brody’s character Royce. They instead decided that a “hot start”, as we call it in the wrestling business, was a better way to go and we’re given the heart pounding opening that sees our characters parachuting into a new planet with no knowledge of how they got there.
2. The movie went through pre-production, filming, and post-production in an incredibly short amount of time. FOX gave Robert Rodriguez and Troublemaker Studios free reign to make the film but they still had to stay within budget. Speaking of budget, they had the same budget as the previous film in the franchise but adjusted for inflation it was probably $10 million or so less.
3. Robert Rodriguez originally wrote a script for a Predator sequel starring Arnold back in 1995. The studio was trying to lure Arnie back into the franchise but the script ended up being ridiculously expensive sounding and they balked at making the film.
4. Lawrence Fishburne was doing CSI at the time was only available to shoot for 2 days.
5. Robert Rodriguez and director Nimrod Antal disagreed on whether or not Alice Braga’s character should survive. They planned on shooting two different endings but they felt that by having her live it would at least give the remaining humans a tiny bit of hope at the end of the film.
6. The character played by Walter Goggins was changed from how it was originally written because they thought it was too much like the Hudson character from Aliens. They were going to recast the part but Goggins convinced Rodriguez that he could do the character how it was rewritten.
7. Adrien Brody was given the part less than two weeks before filming so he didn’t have much time to bulk up before they got underway. He got them to delay most of the scenes with his shirt off till the end and was able to put on 25 lbs when all was said and done.
8. The creature that chases Topher Grace through the jungle was a modified version of the original design from the first Predator. Yes, the one that Jean Claude Van Damme was wearing while he was in the movie.
9. 60% of the film was shot in Texas, much of which was done at Troublemaker Studio. The rest was filmed in Hawaii.
10. The filmmakers added nods to the original film as often as possible. Braga’s character tells a story that refers back to Dutch’s survival against the first Predator attack, the booby traps that they come across were there to show how the Predators have evolved since the Dutch fiasco enough to avoid the traps and still make the kill, and they went back to the original design for the crucified Predator. I believe they called it the “cassette tape version” while the new Predator designs were the “iPod version”.
