"Supposedly, screenwriters Jim and John Thomas heard this jape and wrote Predator which, after a few rewrites, a new lead (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and a change of title from their original spec script, became one of the most enduring sci-fi action films of the 1980s. In truth, the timeline doesn't add up. The Thomas brothers were already shopping their script around in 1983, long before Rocky IV hit cinemas, suggesting the Rocky v alien story is probably a post hoc myth."
"Predator is such a gloriously boneheaded concept that it ought to have spawned 20 increasingly terrible straight-to-video sequels starring progressively more ersatz versions of Schwarzenegger, each battling rubbery mandible-sporting foes against ever cheaper and more cheerful backdrops. Instead, we have been handed a series of pretty middling follow-ups: 1990's Predator 2, the execrable Alien vs Predator films, Predators (2010) and The Predator (2018)."
An urban myth claims the original Predator (1987) was inspired by a joke that Rocky IV left Sylvester Stallone only an alien to fight next. Screenwriters Jim and John Thomas were already shopping their Predator script in 1983, predating Rocky IV and undermining the anecdote. Predator exemplifies a brutal, linear 1980s B-movie creature feature, and subsequent franchise films—Predator 2, Alien vs Predator entries, Predators (2010), and The Predator (2018)—proved middling rather than memorably bad or great. Director Dan Trachtenberg's recent trailer for Predator: Badlands and his work on Prey (2022) and an anime spin-off suggest renewed, confident stewardship of the saga.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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