Predatorturned 30 recently and, even three decades later, it remains a true action classic. The movie holds up incredibly well, even by today’s standards, and the creature is still a relevant part of pop culture. Shane Black is currently shooting The Predator, a sequel to the original, which is set to come out next year. Before he was a successful writer/director, Shane Black was an actor and, he actually starred alongsideArnold Schwarzeneggerin theoriginal Predator. That being the case, Black recently celebrated the 30th anniversary of the movie.
Shane Blacktook a break from reviving thePredatorfranchise and took to social media in order to honor the 30th anniversary ofPredator. On his Twitter, he shared a pretty sweet looking poster, withArnold Schwarzenegger’s Dutchfront-and-Center, celebrating the entirety of the franchise. Shane Black, who played Hawkins, did have a very simple but effective message to go along with the appropriately awesome poster.
“Thanks to all…”
Predatorwas a very solid hit in its day, grossing $98.2 million from a budget of just $15 million. Also, as far as action movies go, it was pretty well-liked by critics, boasting a 78 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That was largely thanks to director John McTiernan, who was working from a script written by Jim Thomas and John Thomas. As many may know, Shane Black went on to be quite the prolific writer, with movies likeLethal WeaponandLast Action Heroto his name. It turns out that he lent his talents toPredatoras well, as explained in a recent interview that McTiernan did with Moviefone, also in honor of the anniversary. Here’s what he had to say about it.
“Well, we tried to get him to be on set for rewrites and he didn’t want to take the job, and he was happy to take a job as an actor. And yes, he did contribute. He was always coming up with ideas and things. Like that goofy joke he told, that terrible joke, I heard him tell some guy that joke at lunch, and I said, ‘We’ve got to put that in the movie!’ Because it was what Shane was like. We just used him for what he was like. He didn’t have to act or pretend to be somebody else. It was neat.”
With The Predator, which is set to hit theaters onAugust 3, 2018, Shane Black hopes to revive the franchise that he helped launch.Predator 2andPredatorstried to keep things going, but they failed to match the quality of the original movie. Let’s not even talk aboutAlien Vs. Predator. Black has an excellent cast that includes Keegan Michael-Key, Thomas Jane,Jacob Tremblayand Olivia Munn, as well as some practicalPredatorcreature effects to back him up. So, fingers crossed. In the meantime, you may check out Shane Black’sPredator30th anniversary tribute tweet for yourself below.
