The news that 20th Century Fox were bringing back the Predator following a critically disappointing Robert Rodriguez rebootquel in 2010 was something of a surprise. Then Shane Black’s name became attached and interest in the project was suddenly elevated. Black’s The Nice Guys was an unsung hero of last year’s cinematic offerings, and the man has a keen eye and ear for making good movies. The news today that he has secured the services of Room’s Jacob Tremblay for a lead role makes a lot of sense given Black’s previous films, in which a young actor often made a real difference to the tone, and success, of the movies.
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Tremblay revealed his casting in typically ebullient fashion.
The young actor followed his star making turn in Room with a leading role in Mike Flanagan’s horror Before I Wake, and will soon be seen alongside Virginia Madsen and Vera Farmiga in Jordan Roberts’ Burn Your Maps. THR have a report which states that Tremlay ‘will play the son of [Boyd] Holbrook’s character, an ex-Marine who discovers the existence of fierce aliens but finds that no one believes they exist.’ They also state that the young actor will play a boy who is ‘autistic and bullied in school but becomes a key player in the fight due to his preternatural ability to learn languages.’ Echos of Arrival coming into play there…
How this will connect to the earlier Predator films is unclear. Rodriguez’s film was something of a standalone next chapter in the series, wisely side-stepping the ‘Aliens Vs…’ films which tanked the series in a terrible fashion. Tremblay joins Holbrook, Sterling K. Brown, Keegan-Michael Key, Trevante Rhodes and Olivia Munn. Secreted in the article is the news that Thomas Jane has also joined the cast.
With Black directing and co-writing we’re back where we were in 2010. Robert Rodriguez seemed like the perfect for a proper sci-fi action film with an iconic monster. It turned out less well than expected, however Black has a particular set of skills that should make this new Predator something special indeed.
