Just this week we saw the latest trailer for the new Predator prequel, Preydirected by 10 Cloverfield Streetby Dan Trachtenberg. On a real break from the usual followers, he travels back in time 300 years to follow Naru (Amber Midthunder), a fierce and highly skilled Comanche warrior. She grew up in the shadow of some of the most legendary hunters to roam the Great Plains, so when danger threatens her encampment, she sets out to protect her people. The prey she tracks down and eventually confronts turns out to be a highly evolved alien with a technically advanced arsenal, resulting in a ferocious and terrifying confrontation between the two opponents …

Bringing a predator to the screen, of course, was a difficult task in the decades following the original, with various sequels and spin-offs garnering mixed reactions. Trachtenberg arrives with a deep and lasting love for John McTiernan’s original (and fond memories of some of the other films) and an approach that feels fresh and new. We couldn’t resist the temptation of a conversation with the director about why he chose to make it a prequel, about how he made Predator feel similar but different, and what Midthunder brings to the protagonist …

A story of violence

Trachtenberg remembers exactly how he met the Predator history and, like many of us, went to a much younger age than his 18-year assessment would suggest …

“Predator it came out when I was in third grade. I wasn’t allowed to see it, and that’s right! But I was in the van headed for a karate tournament with a group of sixth grade students. And they described the whole movie to me, including a moment when Native American explorer Billy (Sonny Landham) carved his own chest and battled the predator on a waterfall. And then I saw the movie and that scene isn’t quite there! But it has always captured my imagination. I’ve always wanted to see What movie, you know. And this is also part of the genesis. “

Become a native

Focusing on Native American hunters as an ideal counterpoint to the alien threat was something Trachtenberg had in mind from the start.

“It was my first presentation at Fox [before it was purchased by Disney], the idea that it would be nice to make a film that focuses on a Native American story, to do a western without a cowboy, ”says Trachtenberg. “It’s a film that doesn’t really exist. Surprisingly, this is not the case. And I just wanted to make a film that was mostly told visually and through action. “

This presented a challenge for the director. “How can you get involved in a very cheap way and still tell an exciting story? I’m not an athlete at all, I don’t like sports, but I love sports movies, mainly because they look like action movies to you.” They don’t need guns. laser. But they still feel warm and hopeful, you know. So, I thought, ‘If I could get the engine of a sports movie, tell a real loser story in this action movie, it would really seem to move and move. . An integral part of this underdog story was, ‘What if we do this about someone and people who are also, in the media, the underdogs? Who are the people who have never been enlightened?’ “

Bring the (half) thunder

Amber Midthunder, who has been seen on shows such as Legion and movies included the ice road Yes Against all odds, has a chance to shine here, playing the central character. Trachtenberg is quick to explain why he chose her.

“Mainly because it’s great!” she is laughing. “She read for the role in a hotel room, via Zoom or FaceTime and really held up. He immediately transported me, despite the bizarre circumstances of his audition tape. She is incredibly attentive and recognizable. ”

It is this relationship that ultimately won the director over. “One of the things that thrilled me was a period film that didn’t put a wall between the viewer and the characters. And it wasn’t as stuffy as a period piece can sometimes be. Because it is from another era. “. , you forget that people are still people and we still feel the same feelings we feel today, even a long time ago. And Amber immediately has this laser in our soul of “oh man, she feels what I feel”. , both of her parents were stuntmen in the past and I thought to myself: “If they can do it, she can do it too.”

Colonial themes

The trailer offers glimpses of other fighters fighting the Predator, and not all of them are Native Americans, suggesting a broader theme of colonialism and war running through the film. It’s something Trachtenberg doesn’t want to delve too deeply into yet, but offers that they will play a role.

“I don’t want to talk about it too much. I want to make sure the movie speaks for itself,” he warns. “But yes, I’m a trapper in French. All right. And they play an important role in the film. “

looking for inspiration

the trailer for Preydoes not evoke the same feeling as the more recent rumors in Predator frankness, which is not a bad thing! – But she plays more born again or a Terrence Malick film. And this is by design.

“Terrence Malick is probably the most talked about,” says Trachtenberg. “And not only The new worldbut days of heavenYes The thin red line Furthermore. We referenced footage from those films and cinematography and wanted them to be authentic. This is a big part of the soul of this film. Yes MacbethMichael Fassbender Macbeth had a huge visual influence on the film.

half-Blood

Towards the end of the trailer, there’s a moment when Naru hides in the mud, which feels like a clear reminder of McTiernan’s film and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s mud-covered Dutchman who uses it to hide the heat from his body from viewing. of the heat of the Predator. So can we expect a lot of nods to the original film?

“There have been so many times we have almost been seduced into putting more and more Easter eggs!” admits Trachtenberg. “’Go to the helicopter!’ he’s not in this movie although many people ask, ‘what if there was a horse named Chopper?’ We didn’t make it, even though there are tons of intentional and unintentional nods to the first film.

Some of them, according to the director, were totally oblivious, born of his pure love of suspense and drama. Predator. “The fun is in the trailer, there’s a sequence in the tall grass. And I remember walking up to one of our actors, Harlan [Blayne Kytwayhat], who plays Itsee in the film. He’s the one who pushes Amber into the grass. And you have to tell him to shut up. And I said, ‘I think it wants to look like you’re not afraid.’ There was a line or something, but I said, just say “shh”. Just lift your finger. I saw the rear shot, turned to the cinematographer and said, “I think you look familiar.” And he says, ‘yes, Predator. ‘ And I was like, Oh yeah … ‘Obviously, this movie is in my brain.

weapons of your choice

The setting of the film hundreds of years ago means that the predatory creature we see is unlike anything we’ve seen before, but it still has some of the wonderful toys we have come to expect from those aliens (canonically known as Yautja’s name). . Most importantly, the Predator’s pillar of destruction, its killing tool, was deliberately omitted for Trachtenberg’s story.

“The main thing I wanted to remove was the plasma launcher,” he explains. “Just because it looked like an instant win button. I wanted to make sure the fight could be as exciting as possible without taking away any of its benefits. He doesn’t have all the tools he has in new movies. But it has some great new gadgets that people can see. “

Follow the suspense

Even if he is a fan of others Predator film, Trachtenberg wanted to bring Prey back to a feeling he hadn’t really felt since Dutch and his team first set foot in the Val Verde jungle in 1987: fear.

“There is a lot of suspense in the film,” says Trachtenberg. “I think it’s something that wasn’t really such a big part of the franchise. Sure, when we think about it [these films] you think a lot more about the action. And the blood, the horror of him. As a kid, it was really a horror movie to me. So I think the movie is trying to be a lot scarier than ever and a lot more suspenseful, of course.

Fighting misconceptions

The reason we will be facing the alien in the room is because, despite all the cult following in the franchise, the quality of subsequent Predator films has always been quite mixed. What started out as an incredibly tense monster movie oozing terror from every pore has seen diminishing returns in follow-ups ranging from mid-trial to ridiculous. For Trachtenberg and writer Patrick Aison, Prey it has become an exercise in assuming all the notions about the child Predator sequels that have plagued this franchise and make sure they don’t fall into the same trap.

“I think all the films after the first have had really good roles. I don’t know if there was ever one that was, on the whole, a great movie, I think they all have had varying degrees of fantastic roles. So, it was very important to me that this film not only had great parts, but also needed a great story and something that was even more universal than the original. Predator“He said.

“I wanted to go back to the basic primal instincts of this original Predator film, ”he continues. “I think there have been a lot of big changes since then. And that was part of it. “Okay, let’s make it even smaller. But the time has come. And so, hopefully, for diehard fans of the franchise and all of its incarnations, they feel like this movie is only talking to them. And for people who have never seen a Predator previous movie, I’m like, ‘Oh, is this a movie? Is it a real movie? I thought it was just a monster movie! They are both! “

Prey will land on Disney + in the UK on August 5 and via Hulu in the US on the same day.