More information is slowly trickling down about Shane Black’s eagerly anticipated Predator reboot…and the director has been talking to Empire magazine about just why the latest addition to the franchise needed all those reshoots.

The film was scheduled to arrive early this year, but had to be shunted to September after test audiences didn’t understand the tone of the movie, which isn’t a huge surprise. Black frequently walks a fine line between action and the darkest of comedy, but in this instance it would appear that he didn’t get it quite right on the first pass. He also admits he made a mistake setting the movie’s climax in broad daylight.

“The first time we shot the third act it was daytime. It’s all this spooky stuff but then it’s bright sunlight. It just didn’t work. So I said ‘Ummm, can we do this again at night?’”

Black on set with Keegan-Michael Key and Elisa Key

The studio let him revisit the third act, which additionally changed to a forest-based setting. A reinvention of the Predator was also introduced – the ‘Ulimate Predator’ that we saw in the recent trailer – which Black notes is “Bigger, meaner and nasty as hell. Ten feet tall and midnight black, bristling with spines, skin thickened with chitinous organic armour – the product of harvesting DNA from the deadliest creatures on every world it has hunted. The ultimate expression of Predator dominance. It is…it’s fair to say, one giant, ugly motherfucker.”

And if you need a reminder…just watch the trailer again!

The full synopsis for the film is as follows…

“From the outer reaches of space to the small-town streets of suburbia, the hunt comes home in Shane Black’s explosive reinvention of the Predator series. Now, the universe’s most lethal hunters are stronger, smarter and deadlier than ever before, having genetically upgraded themselves with DNA from other species.

“When a young boy accidentally triggers their return to Earth, only a ragtag crew of ex-soldiers and a disgruntled science teacher can prevent the end of the human race.”

Boyd Holbrook stars, along with Trevante Rhodes, Jacob Tremblay, Keegan-Michael Key, Olivia Munn, Sterling K. Brown, Alfie Allen, Thomas Jane, Augusto Aguilera, Jake Busey and Yvonne Strahovski. Shane Black wrote and directed.

The Predator opens on September 14, 2018.

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