SXSW: More 'Predators'

By Jay A. Fernandez

A couple more things on the “Predators” event that Robert Rodriguez and Nimrod Antal hosted at the Alamo Drafthouse, which went from 10:15 to 11:30 pm:

• Rodriguez noted that the “Predators” script he first wrote 15 years ago was an assignment handed to him by Peter Rice at Fox while Rodriguez was waiting to shoot “Desperado.” His script originally kept the lead character of Dutch, since the studio thought star Arnold Schwarzenegger could return to play him. When the script was done, Fox sent Rodriguez to pitch the story to the future governor, who asked him to a Monday cigar night at his restaurant Schatzi’s. Apparently, Clooney was there, and Rodriguez shot the shit with Schwazenegger and John Milius before the Terminator finally said, “Now pitch me da story…”

• Rodriguez, who had had a rare glass of wine (imagine telling Milius you’re not going to have a drink with him!), pitched his story of Dutch heading off to a foreign planet to be hunted by more than one predator. Ultimately, Schwarzenegger passed, but that storyline formed the basis for what “Predators” screenwriters Michael Finch and Alex Litvak built last year when Fox revived the project.

• The first trailer they showed last night was very effective in the style of the first film and movies like “Alien” and “Aliens” -- mostly shots of men and women wondering what is going on and being terrified of something while the music and sound effects (that predator death-rattle sound, aaaaahhh!!) from the original film spool over the jungle footage. The point is a simple one, and what the filmmakers said they were shooting for explicitly: it’s about suspense, it’s about fear, it’s about the hunt.

• Plotwise, the film posits that a bunch of Earth’s most savage killers are whisked away to a planet that turns out to be a game preserve used by the predator species to hone their skills. In the sense that this film is a “true” sequel to the original film, that means that the predators are not used to getting their asses handed to them, and want to practice some more on these… humans… to improve their hunting skills.

• On that note, Antal, Rodriguez, creature effects supervisor Greg Nicotero and the designers at Rodriguez’s Troublemaker Studios in Austin focused on hunting as a driving force for their creations. So we’re going to see superpredators, including one nicknamed “Mr. Black” -- smarter, faster, meaner. There will be a falconer predator, a flushing predator, a dog handling predator. As the filmmakers talked, the screen behind them showed a loop of the artists’ drawings and designs. We were not allowed to take pictures, but they showed the filmmakers’ approach of sticking with the core predator design and augmenting it in ways that gave personality to the hunting tactics of that type of predator.

• The original predator tribe, as depicted in the first film, does make a special appearance in this film. “Our old friend,” Rodriguez said with a smile. But as Rodriguez says star Laurence Fishburne described the two tribes, “it’s like the difference between dogs and wolves.” Or, as another crew member said, the old style is the 8 track version while the new ones are iPods. · Rodriguez and Antal talked about how cool it was to see fully costumed predators -- there are no CG creatures -- walking the parking lot at Troublemaker, many of them nearly eight feet tall. “Nothing cooler than seeing predators in Austin,” Rodriguez said.

• Antal mentioned how much this franchise has been a part of his personal film fanaticism over the years and that he had a barber in Budapest that had a predator tattoo.

• They showed a second trailer with additional shots and voice over, though no more shots of predators. This one gives a little more of the humans’ context, and a little more Fishburne. Which is always a good thing.

• Look out geeks: I can’t be sure, but at least one or two of the creature design drawings up on the screen looked like… females. I distinctly heard one guy behind me gasp “whoa” as one flashed by.

• Nicotero worked on the original facehuggers in James Cameron’s “Aliens.” Rodriguez met Cameron a few weeks ago and asked him if it was true that he came up with the design for the mouth of the original predator when Stan Winston was building it. The answer? “Yes, I did.”

• Rodriguez has the predator death rattle sound effect on his phone and played it through the mic at times; he also has the original score on there and would play it while watching Antal’s footage sometimes to amp up the experience.

• They are editing the film now, and it will be bloody. Rodriguez joked that his original concept for the trailer was to show the word “PREDATORS” on the screen and then drop each of the letters until it just said “R.”

• This film is meant to be a real sequel to the original film, and there is a direct dialogue reference to the events of the first film.

• Antal talked about how intimidating it was to “direct” these seven-foot-tall guys in the predator gear, since they couldn’t hear him well and they were constantly super-hot and sweating. Because of the noise levels of the mechanics built into the hoods, they were always yelling back at him when he tried to talk to them.

• 3D was discussed at one point for this movie, but it sounded like Rodriguez didn’t think it was a great idea to convert it, and that they didn’t really have time anyway before hitting their early July release date.

• Rodriguez seemed eager to make more of these “Predators” films if this one does well.

Comments

[jack]

um, heat vision guys, you do realize that the trailer is already released on the official site, right?

[Texas breast reduction]

When i was watching one of the trailers where the transparent image of the predator was shown moving in the forest with the huge and dense background of the green forest, i had a strong wish to watch this movie from that day itself.

[m3 zero]

After snagging a seat at the sell-out presentation of Predators on the opening night of SXSW,FEARnet has a full report on the sneak peeks and concept art unveiled Friday night in Austin.

[nike shox]

3D was discussed at one point for this movie, but it sounded like Rodriguez didn’t think it was a great idea to convert it, and that they didn’t really have time anyway before hitting their early July release date.