Robert Rodriguez Unveils the Secrets of Making his Latest Film; Predators
“How do you make a sequel to a classic movie using modern state-of-the-art techniques?”
7/29/2010

During the month of August, cinema theatres in Egypt will release the newest part of the famous merciless alien race, Predators. The film is distributed by United Motion Pictures; one of the largest film distribution companies in the Arab world and sole agent of the American 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros in Egypt.

The film was written and produced by world-famous film director Robert Rodriguez, who is also famous for directing and writing Desperado and Sin City. During an interview held with the American Total Film magazine, Robert Rodriguez elaborated on how Predators was made and on how it was adapted in a new and powerful manner that matches the magnitude of its millions of worldwide fans. Rodriguez commented that he was keen to distinguish this production from the Alien vs. Predators series, especially that he was a fan of the original two production and was not very fond of how the characters and storyboard were conveyed by AVP. It is for this reason that the script Rodriguez wrote for this latest part of the series begins from where the 1990 production ends.

When asked on the reasons that made him decide to make Predators, Rodriguez said, “Back in the 90’s I was about to do Desperado and had some free time and my agent said, ‘Oh, there is a writing assignment at Fox for another Predator movie”. So I jumped on that. I saw the original in the theatre with my older brother, who was into bodybuilding at the time, so we’d always go and see any Arnold Schwarzenegger movie.”

“I was working on Machete but Predators was going on at the very same time. It was fantastic. The studio wanted me to produce it so I picked Nimrod Antal to direct. He had such a clear idea of what he wanted to do with the movie: make it scary and make it about the hunt. We had to update the script, because mine was written so long ago it still had Arnold in it. Other than that we just had to come up with new characters.”

Rodriguez continues saying, “What were the things I wanted to keep? Practical effects-that’s how the original was shot. It was important to keep the Predators as something tangible that the actors respond to, as opposed to acting around a CG thing. And if you can get an Oscar-winning actor in a Predator movie , Take Him! I don’t ever worry when someone like hasn't done hard action before. There is a first time for everything.”

“I had written it on another planet set it in the jungle. They messed with the design so much. I wanted to keep the classic Predator that you haven't seen since the first movie with Arnold. Then you could really compare it to the new tribe we have, which is much more brutal, scarier-looking, primal, just sadistic. The Predators have got all kinds of new traps and weapons, because we wanted to differentiate the Predators by their hunting tactics. So if one hunts by flushing out its prey then he’s a dog-handler, he has this Predator-hounds he sends out. Another one uses a “Falcon”, a seeing device that flies around- anything it sees the Predator can see. You are pretty much screwed if you have landed on that planet. You aren't gonna really survive. If you get away it’s just because they let you get away, just so they can figure out how they are gonna kill you on the next round. They take their time. I can’t give it away, but their technology involves… Torture.”

“We shot the movie in 53 days in Hawaii and we wanted it to look like another planet, so we used areas that weren't very picturesque. It’s always raining so there’s always a lot of mud and it’s hard to move around.”

“Are we going to get to see Predators go head-to-head? Oh yeah. There is a tribal war going on. I can’t tell you anymore, but you will get to see the Predator kicking other Predators’ Asses…”

The official website of the film is: www.predators-movie.com