Predators Director’s Got The Right Idea

Posted by sean in Latest News, Movies on December 1st, 2009

Nimród Antal, the young director who Robert Rodriguez has put in charge of his upcoming Predator reboot, sat down recently to talk to Comingsoon.net, and from what he said, it seems like he really does have what it takes to give the fan what he wants.

In rebooting a franchise, as with kicking a nasty drug habit, the first step is recognizing that you have a problem. And here, Antal does this right off the bat. “So far, it’s been great, and I think that the fans who may have been underwhelmed by the last two AVP films, I think they’re in for a very pleasant surprise,” he says. So, he recognizes how crappy the Predators’ last two appearances have been. That’s a start, right? But as the helmer of a reboot, he’s gotta do more than just recognize the flaws of previous installments. What will Antal bring to the franchise? What will he do to elevate Predators above the two AVP installments – and, hopefully, even above Predator 2?

Well, for one thing, he’s not going to George Lucas the thing. Yes, computer-generated imagery is a cool, relatively recent development, and a fun toy. You can also do a lot of things with CGI that you can’t do with live action. But at the moment, it still doesn’t look totally real. That’s why the best special effects are the ones that blend CGI details with live-action props – Jurassic Park did this, and ended up with effects that still stand up, over fifteen years later. Iron Man did it just last year, with the end result that you often can’t tell where photography ends and computer graphics begin. The Predators director seems to understand the importance of filming things that, um, actually exist – which is also a good sign. “I think we both recognize that the original film was as good as it was because of the practical, because it was a guy in a suit, because it was the jungle, so we stay true to that,” he says. “We were in Hawaii for a month in the jungle, so there’s going to be some pretty impressive locations.”

But the most important requirement for the man who’s going to save the Predator series? Being a disciple of the original film. And, yep, you guessed it: Antal’s a longtime lover of the series. In his words: “Let me tell you, I was so much of a fan that I stood in line when I was 14 and I had the poster on my wall. I was a huge fan.”

And hopefully, after this film, moviegoers everywhere will be fans of Antal’s.