Predator Badlands: Director Dan Trachtenberg reveals James Cameron had doubts

The latest film in the Predator franchise, Predator: Badlands, is dropping this week, directed by established Director Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane, Prey), and as part of the build-up, Trachtenberg has revealed that James Cameron (Titanic, Avatar) had some doubts about its potential success.

After deciding to shoot in New Zealand for the project, he received an invitation from 20th Century to come and hang out for the day. It turned out that the source of that invite was from James Cameron, the decorated filmmaker who works out of Wellington, New Zealand, and was the director of Aliens, the second instalment in the Predator’s sister franchise. Trachtenberg said yes and drove eight hours to visit Cameron, where he explained his vision for the film to a pretty positive response.

READ OUR REVIEW OF PREDATOR: BADLANDS HERE

“When he sat down [at dinner], he said, ‘I was just thinking about what you’re doing, and I think it’s going to work,’” Trachtenberg told The Hollywood Reporter “so all that wind in my sails carried me back up to Auckland to tell my crew. The blessing of that guy — who has taken on some pretty impossible odds and pulled them off — was absolutely incredible”. However, in post-production, it later turned out that wasn’t necessarily the case and that actually, Cameron had told him that to encourage him and give him confidence. “He said, ‘I have to be honest with you. When I first heard what you were doing, I did not think it was going to work. But holy crap, you pulled it off,’” Trachtenberg recalled. “He either did not remember that first conversation that meant a whole lot to me, or he really does know what someone in my position needs to hear to get things done. I think it’s more the latter. So he put wind in our sails at just the right times, and I had to make sure we gave him a special thanks”.

Predator: Badlands tells the story of a Yautja (also known as a Predator) called Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatang) who meets a Weyland-Yutani synthetic known as Thia (Elle Fanning), who’s heavy on words and light on legs. Dek has been discarded by his Yautja clan, and in an effort to prove himself, flies his brother Kwei’s ship to Genna, the most dangerous planet in the universe, to go on an unsanctioned hunt for its most mythical beast. It’s here that he meets Thia, and through some persuasion, he realises she can aid his quest.

Predator: Badlands is out on the 7th of November.

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Danny Humby

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Danny is a freelance media creative with a background spanning marketing, journalism and governance. From 2021 to 2024 he was Chair of the Student Radio Association and is currently a Trustee at Chichester Festival Theatre. He holds an MSc in Marketing and a BA in Film and Television from Solent University, and remains passionate about supporting young people, the arts, and charitable organisations to help broaden their reach and impact. He can be found under @popcornandpace on Instagram.

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