Copyright Screen Rant
Predator: Badlands director Dan Trachtenberg explains how one aspect of the film breaks the series mold. Releasing officially on November 7, Predator: Badlands will have a chance to show what the franchise is made of this weekend. It is the first theatrical release for the series since The Predator in 2018. Badlands is set up for success in some ways, with known and well-liked actor Elle Fanning playing a new lead in a series replete with the already-known Yautja. Trachtenberg's two Predator movies for Hulu, Prey and Predator: Killer of Killers, have also been well-received. In a discussion moderated by Todd Gilchrist at ScreenRant's advanced IMAX screening of Predator: Badlands, Trachtenberg explains how the movie's setting sets it apart. In Todd's question, he noted that the other movies tend to focus on how the Yautja affect tropical places. Trachtenberg explains that he sees the Yautja as "a nomadic culture." This made Predator: Badlands more able to do a feature that took place in an "arid" landscape replete with "dust." He felt that this was "a completely different kind of project." The filming location in New Zealand, which has diverse landscapes, helped make this possible. Check out Trachtenberg's full quote below: Todd: It feels like the franchise has gotten a little bit away from this, but the first movies in particular were very much about you're in this tropical location and they show up there. How much, if at all, did that impact your conception of the Yautja homeworld? Because you watch the first 10 minutes of this movie and you're like, "Oh, wow, this is truly something I've never seen here." How did that aspect of the mythology maybe impact your decision to create this arid, very unforgiving landscape that they would go off-world to kill people somewhere else? Dan Trachtenberg: I think I just felt like they were a nomadic culture and like that Western, out on their own, and arid and dust and different than the planets that they go to. You're right to point out that they often go to a place that is jungle. Even in Predators, when they went to a different planet, it also was jungle. So I just wanted it to be as distinct as possible and give the movie scope and scale to really feel like we're traversing from one kind of planet to a completely different kind of planet. In fact, I was really hyper-focused in going to New Zealand that we don't find ourselves just in another jungle. I think sometimes we tend to associate forests with fantasy and jungle for sci-fi. That was what was really unique about New Zealand is that it's an interesting combination of both. To set a sequence in the open field with those crazy spiked pods and the razor, all those things that just aesthetically were a little bit more distinct and interesting and dangerous feeling. If there is anything that the recent Predator movies have been saying, its this: the Yautja are everywhere. Predator: Killer of Killers especially made this clear, tracking the presence of the Yautja throughout multiple eras of history, and in different countries. This included feudal Japan, the Viking era, and the 1940s United States. Trachtenberg has also been trying, more broadly, to change the face of the Predator franchise. In his first attempt, Prey, Trachtenberg chose to focus the story through the lens of a Comache Nation warrior. Now, Predator: Badlands is stepping out through its landscape. Diverging away from the tropical feel, as Trachtenberg references, creates a film that is "aesthetically" a "bit more distinct" than its predecessors. Even with carryover elements such as the Yautja, its environment allows Badlands to feel like a completely different film from the others. Overall, these diversions from the Predator mold have been very well-received. Prey managed a 94% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes, and Killer of Killers even rose to a 95%. Thus far, Predator: Badlands is following that positive trend, with an 87% Tomatometer.
