“If it bleeds, we can kill it.”
With The Predator about to be unleashed on film fans this August, Shane Black knows exactly what’s at stake. Hell, he only played Hawkins in John McTiernan’s sci-fi classic!
As you can tell by our Predator quiz that’s harder than Billy going mano-a mano-with the intergalactic warrior, we’re massive fans Dutch and co because 30 years later, it’s still endlessly quotable, gory and action-packed.
As you might know, a fresh-faced Jean Claude Van Damme was originally hired to play the Predator in that film. The Belgian star left the project though and the original costume was a large reason why. Before the special effects maestro Stan Winston took over, the Predator’s suit was a bit of a shambles.
Ultimately, Van Damme was replaced by the late Kevin Peter Hall but footage of his suit lives on.
Carl Weathers and Jean Claude Van Damme in the original Predator costume #Predator #BehindTheScenes #carlweathers #jeanclaudevandamme pic.twitter.com/VIEERdm4Fa
— Phil Edwards (@Live_for_Films) January 17, 2018
“It looked like a guy in a lizard suit with the head of a duck,” Arnold Schwarzenegger once said to describe the original version because it had a dog-like head and backward-bent, reptilian legs.
Steve Johnson, a special effects artist on the film, agreed that the original designs were absolutely awful. Thankfully, the producers agreed.
As you can see below, Van Damme also thought the red CGI pyjama suit was going to be the actual look of the Predator.
To quote one of the film’s most iconic lines, “You are one ugly motherfucker.”
Clip via – Stan Winston School
While Shane Black’s reboot of the Predator saga is going to be set in the suburbs, the original writers of McTiernan’s classic have previously spoken about ideas they had for a new installment.
Jim Thomas and John Thomas, the writers of Predator, were speaking at an anniversary event and they outlined a few different ideas that they had for a sequel and one of them really got us interested.
“We also had an idea about doing a World War 2 version in the Battle of the Bulge, in the middle of the winter. A German foot platoon and an American platoon separated and had a stalemate fighting each other off when the Predator shows up. They have to join together to defeat it. We thought the snow Predator effect would be quite different,” they said.
As we’ve said before, this needs to happen.
