Shane Black to reboot Predator movie franchise with Fred Dekker

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A studio’s desire to reboot an iconic franchise should generally be viewed with a healthy amount of skepticism, but there’s something so crazy about the news surrounding a potential reboot of ’80s action classic Predator that, well… it just might work.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, 20th Century Fox has tasked Iron Man 3 and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang writer/director Shane Black with scripting a reboot of the 1987 film that pitted Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jesse Ventura, and a host of tough-guy actors against a seemingly unstoppable alien in the jungles of Central America. The brutal, bloody film went on to spawn two sequels (including the recent Predators in 2010) and a pair of crossover movies with the Alien franchise, Alien vs. Predator and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem.

Black is expected to pen the initial script for the film and also direct the reboot, but here’s where it gets interesting: After providing the first draft of the script, Black will then pass the script along to writer/director Fred Dekker for additional scripting. And if those names don’t ring any bells for you, there’s a good chance you missed out on some of the best films 1987 had to offer.

Dekker is probably best known as the director of 1987’s comedy-horror adventure Monster Squad, which he and Black co-wrote together. The film pitted a group of kids against Dracula, The Mummy, and various other Universal Monsters creatures in a bid to save the world from these classic villains.

As for Black, before he got behind the camera for the well-received Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Iron Man 3, he made a name for himself in Hollywood as the screenwriter for the franchise-launching Lethal Weapon, which made an action hero out of Mel Gibson and made Black a sought-after writer. And yes, that film also arrived in theaters in… (wait for it…) the year 1987.

It’s also worth noting that Black had a minor, on-screen role in the original 1987 Predator, which he was being pursued to rewrite at one point due to his success with Lethal Weapon and Monster Squad. At the time, Black declined the studio’s request to rewrite the film, but apparently 27 years and the offer to write, direct, and collaborate once again with Dekker proved too good to pass up.

It’s uncertain when the Predator reboot would go into production, but for fans of any of the 1987 films Black and Dekker worked on — and fans of the Predator franchise, naturally — this is a project to keep on your radar.

Shane Black to reboot Predator movie franchise with Monster Squad’s Fred Dekker

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