You know that completely new “Predator” reboot 20th Century Fox is slapping together with the help of Robert Rodriquez’s and his Trouble Maker Studios that has geeks everywhere creaming their pants? Well, apparently none (or most) of them bothered to look into the fact that this “reboot” is actually from a script Rodriquez wrote 14 years ago as a sequel to “Predator 2.”
In an interview with Moviehole back in 2004, Rodriquez discussed the “Predator 3” script he had written, “Oh, “Predators”, yes we’re the “Predator 3”, it’s call “Predators.” It was back when I was doing “Desperado.” I wrote “Desperado,” it was going to get made like end of September, and then “Last Action Hero” bombed, so they said we’re not making any movies for a year, like next year. So I was like what am I going to do until then? So I took a writing assignment, and one of the writing assignments that was out was “Predator” sequel.”
Rodriquez goes on to explain why this didn’t see the light of day until now, “It was just crazy, it was huge, it was a big, big, big budget. Because I didn’t have to direct it, I just had to write it. So I didn’t really think about the budget, I was just like wrote this, wrote that. And it was really a cool script, it’s floating around somewhere. But it’s huge, and will never be made, the studio edited it and said there’s no way we can make this, this would cost — even at that time — $150 million.”
The Script Details
In a separate interview with “Total Film” way back in 1999, Rodriquez described the over-the-top plot, “The heroes go to the Predator planet – a breeding ground for species from other planets – and the Predators hold gladiator-like games. Since I knew I wasn’t going to be doing, I just went for it – a $150-million dollar bloodfest with a gigantic Jean-Claude Van Damme/Arnold Schwarzenegger celebrity death match at the end.”
Why bring the script to life now, after all this time?
Well a source tell us this: Rodriguez’s old script was indeed picked up and dusted off by Fox, so the “reboot” term sorta seems relative. Presumably the studio finally decided to dust off and use his old script as a jumping off point because a) they’re out of ideas, b) someone asked aloud, “what money-making properties do we own that we can do a ‘reboot’ on now that reboots are in fashion and now trusted and approved by the geeks?”
The script of course could get totally re-written, but we do know the genesis started with what Rodriguez once called, “Predators” 14-some years ago. Now that we’ve straightened that out for everyone now, can we get Jesse Ventura’s character back into play somehow? Hey, if they reincarnated Ripley, why not.