Prey director wanted the Predator to be scarier than ever before

Time Out has unveiled a new image from the upcoming Predator film Prey, which will released through the Hulu streaming service on August 5th, and you can take a look at that image at the bottom of this article. The site also conducted an interview with the film’s director Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane), and during their conversation Trachtenberg said he wanted the Predator in his film to be scarier than any Predator we’ve seen before. Here’s his quote:

I wanted [the Predator] to be scarier than we’ve seen it before. It’s intelligent and it has advanced technology, and that makes it even more difficult to take on. But because the movie is set 300 years in the past, those things need to feel a little bit older than we’ve seen before, but also still far more advanced than what we think our earthlings would be able to handle. I wanted to make sure the head was more proportional to the body. This predator is much slimmer and less armoured than it’s ever been. It’s more ‘creature’. It’s still hulking and ferocious.”

Trachtenberg also confirmed that the basic idea of Prey draws inspiration the Billy character in the first Predator movie:

My friends went to see Predator and told me about the scene in which Billy fights the Predator on a bridge over a waterfall. But when I saw the movie, that wasn’t in it, and I wanted to see that movie. Spiritually, Prey is connected to that moment.”

The director said “We’ll find out if there’s any further link” to Billy in Prey. More quotes from Trachtenberg can be found at the Time Out link.

Scripted by Patrick Aison (Jack Ryan), Prey has the following synopsis:

Set in the Comanche Nation 300 years ago, Prey is the story of a young woman, Naru, a fierce and highly skilled warrior. She has been raised in the shadow of some of the most legendary hunters who roam the Great Plains, so when danger threatens her camp, she sets out to protect her people. The prey she stalks, and ultimately confronts, turns out to be a highly evolved alien predator with a technically advanced arsenal, resulting in a vicious and terrifying showdown between the two adversaries.

A press release notes that “Prey will be available on Hulu entirely in Comanche as a language option, or with Comanche subtitles, which is the first time a feature-length movie on a direct-to-consumer streaming platform has been available in the Comanche language in its entirety.”

John Davis produced Prey with Marty Ewing and Jhane Myers, who is a Native Comanche. Lawrence Gordon, Ben Rosenblatt, James E. Thomas, John C. Thomas, and Marc Toberoff served as executive producers.

Amber Midthunder (Roswell, New Mexico) stars alongside Dakota Beavers of the band WesternBoy, Stormee Kipp (Sooyii), Michelle Thrush (The Journey Home), Julian Black Antelope (Tribal), Cody Big Tobacco (The Revenant), Skye Pelletier (Burden of Truth), Tymon Carter (The Emigrants), and Harlan Blayne Kytwayhat (Shoresy), with Dane DiLiegro (American Horror Stories), a 6’9″ former basketball player who has experience working in creature suits, as the Predator.

Are you looking forward to Prey? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.

Prey has been rated R for strong bloody violence.

Source: Time Out

About the Author

Cody is a news editor and film critic, focused on the horror arm of JoBlo.com, and writes scripts for videos that are released through the JoBlo Originals and JoBlo Horror Originals YouTube channels. In his spare time, he's a globe-trotting digital nomad, runs a personal blog called Life Between Frames, and writes novels and screenplays.