Cameras are rolling on Dan Trachtenberg’s Predator: Badlands, the next film in the Predator universe, with New Zealand serving as the production’s home.
The long-running Predator franchise is in a good place at the moment with there being more appetite for another entry than we’ve see for decades. That’s thanks to the guidance of Prey director, Dan Trachtenberg and the talented cast and crew he assembled to make the 2022 film which took the basic building blocks of a Predator movie and used them to assemble a thrilling movie that followed a young Commanche would-be warrior played by Amber Midthunder.
The setup paid off brilliantly, audiences were thrilled and having successfully delivered a sorely-needed shot to the arm to one of 20th Century Studios’ ailing action franchises, Trachtenberg found himself being invited back into the Predator universe again.
It was publicly confirmed back in February that Trachtenberg would be returning to helm the next film and that the title would be Predator: Badlands. It was also said that the film would be set in the future, although whether that’s the near-future (a setup 1991’s Predator 2 used) or a more distant point in time, we don’t yet know.
Now cameras are rolling in New Zealand though, we have discovered a few more details thanks to fan-site, AVPGalaxy who found an online casting call for the project’s codename, Backpack. We learned back in June that Elle Fanning was in line to star but it now looks like she might be playing two roles. According to the casting call:
‘The lead actress will play the twin sisters called Thia and Tessa. Thia is smart, witty and has spent most of her life in a laboratory and with this she is “on her first big adventure in the world”. Tessa “has a militant intensity” when it comes to completing her goals and objectives.’ It also adds that ‘the lead actress having to be able to handle heavy action as well as wearing prosthetics/heavy makeup.’
The project itself is described as ‘a groundbreaking film in which one of the two main storylines delves into the intricate bond of two very different sisters, their familial ties are put to the ultimate test as they pursue divergent paths and missions.’ That’s more than we’ve learned so far and it’s more than enough to whet the appetite. Production is slated to continue until September, so if we’re lucky then we could see Predator: Badlands in cinemas at some point later next year.
We’ll keep you posted as we hear more.
