In the original Predator, the titular hunter was conveyed through the tried-and-true method of putting a performer in an intimidating suit. With much of the film seeing the character stalking the shadows, this was an appropriate approach, as the less we saw of the monster, the more scared we were. In the decades since that 1987 movie, technology has allowed the Yautja species to be conveyed in a variety of ways, and with the upcoming Predator: Badlands, director Dan Trachtenberg utilized a number of methods to most effectively realize the creature. Predator: Badlands is set to hit theaters on November 7th.
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“We did a very new thing with the creature. The thing that’s been special about Predator is that it’s had practical suit effects. It’s one of the first big pioneers of that art. All the movies have featured that craft,” Trachtenberg explained during a press event, which ComicBook attended. “The problem is that โฆ when we did some early tests for this movie, we realized the obvious thing, is that it’s typically a horror character. It pops out of the shadows for a few seconds and we see glimpses and it’s cloaked for so often. This movie, you really wanted people to connect with [main character] Dek.”
He continued, “Unfortunately, the rotors that go inside the mask that is usually adorned for the Predator not only affects all the physicality of the creature, so it makes people move a certain way, but also it just does not have the articulation to bring people in and connect to a creature. We were trying to do this thing of, we want you to bond with a horrific-looking creature. The methodology was a guy in a suit, and you’re seeing suit, the whole thing, other than his face. The face is all digital, largely handled by Wฤtฤ Workshop.”
[RELATED – First Predator: Badlands Teaser Puts the Iconic Hunter in the Spotlight]
Luckily, Trachtenberg’s experiences on Prey, which was a hit with both audiences and critics, offered him new insight into how best to approach the beast.
“The thing I should have mentioned, that I think is very cool about how we’re treating the faces — the CG is so that, we expressed this in Prey, where we had some [scenes] we would augment a lot,” the director clarified. “There was a lot of handover between the practical and digital, like in his hands and picking up things and things you would never notice. Some things, unfortunately, were a little bit noticeable. A lot of that, it was when we went to a face occasionally and it became a creature face. The cool of what we’re doing โฆ where it’s digital, it’s meant to match the suit.”
He added, “So it’s not matching creature flesh, it’s matching his suit, which has a look to it, which Wฤtฤ makes amazingly, and should feel like an alien creature, but it’s still a little different than like when you see a full CG Gollum or any alien creature in any cool Alien. It’s that flesh is different than suit, and so the face perfectly blends in and is matching that suit quality. So, hopefully, it looks like real material.”
Predator: Badlands, which stars Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, is set in the future on a remote planet, where a young Predator (Schuster-Koloamatangi), outcast from his clan, finds an unlikely ally in Thia (Fanning) and embarks on a treacherous journey in search of the ultimate adversary. The film is directed by Dan Trachtenberg and produced by John Davis, Dan Trachtenberg, Marc Toberoff, Ben Rosenblatt, and Brent OโConnor.
Predator: Badlands hits theaters on November 7th.
