Philly-born filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg is heading back to the 'Predator' universe with his latest film, 'Predator: Badlands.' This high-octane, emotional follow-up pushes the franchise into new territory by peeling back the curtain on one of pop cultures most notable villains.
To delve into more, Trachtenberg sat down to talk about what drew him back to the world of the Yautja, the wild behind-the-scenes work with stars Elle Fanning and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatang, and how his passion for heartfelt storytelling helps drive the action.
What motivated you to join the world of Predator first with ‘Prey’, and why come back with not just one, but two projects in this world?
It's funny, I wasn't exactly sitting around thinking I love ‘Predator’ and what would I do to make ‘Predator’ cool. I really was just trying to think of what's a movie that I would want to see? What's something I'd feel desperate and passionate to make? And I was thinking a lot about making a movie where the story would be told primarily through action.
I was really inspired by seeing ‘Mad Max Fury Road’ at the time—I started thinking about a survival tale with someone trying to prove themselves out in the wild. And then I thought, what's a protagonist that we so rarely see? That led me to a Comanche Warrior trying to prove themselves.
I've always loved the notion of a period and sci-fi being blended, because we almost never see that. And all of that blended together led to ‘Predator’ and that unique take, ‘Prey.’ So it wasn't me forcing an idea into submission and just arbitrarily picking ‘Predator.’ It's sort of the great idea, the original fresh idea for a movie that found itself in ‘Predator’, and I've tried to do that every time.
What went into finding the right Dek for such a physically demanding role?
I think you pointed out the right stuff, because that physicality is so important. Not just for the endurance and for the ability to move around in a suit, but especially in an action film where the way someone moves is as much of a piece of the storytelling as the dialogue. If you think about the way Indiana Jones throws a punch and the way that John McClane runs around, it’s all very different from the way that Jason Bourne does. So I really put that on a pedestal. And we had some of our actors, Dimitrius (Schuster-Koloamatang) included, do an obstacle course with a bunch of stuntmen to try and find Dek. And the way that Dimitrius traversed that obstacle course, so cool, so powerful, even better than the stunt guys that we had doing it. And we knew then that we had found our Dek.
And what about adding the emotional element to Dek when we’ve known the Yautja as a villain in the other films?
A lot of it is owed to Dimitrius’ boundless acting gifts. But we also thought quite a bit about movies where bad guys are up against things even worse, so you're rooting for [them.] That's such a great dramatic pull and really requires both the ability to intimidate and also be able to show a little bit of vulnerability.
Elle Fanning also had a tall order in her role. How much preparation goes into getting effects like that prepared?
When we started prepping, the biggest thing was how are we were going to do Thia, Elle Fanning, as a backpack. And we went through every possible rig you could imagine. I even found a video online of these backpackers who developed a system where a balloon is tethered to your backpack to take some of the weight off and was laughed at by the entire crew for bringing it up. And that maybe was the one thing we didn't try when we actually made the movie. We had wires tethered to the trees and the mountains in New Zealand, and we mostly shot the movie on location. We had this crazy wheelbarrow rig where her legs would be in the sled of the barrel and Dimitrius had to pull her along on top of everything else he was doing. And of course, [we] needed a lot of VFX love in the end to delete the bottom half of her and put in some of those crazy robot organs. But yeah, we had a great time.
What do you hope fans of the ‘Predator’ franchise — and then equally, new fans who are just discovering this world — get out of watching ‘Predator: Badlands’?
I took a lot of inspiration from T2, ‘Terminator: 2.’ That was a state-of-the-art, VFX thrill ride that had awesome action, but a whole lot of heart. And I think people will find this movie to be incredibly surprising.
‘Jaws’ is one of my favorite movies of all time. With ‘Jaws’, when it's scary, it's terrifying. But when it's funny, it's hilarious. And when there's drama, it's super sincere. You don’t have to go to the movies and only get one experience. You don't have to just see a horror movie and only be scared. I love a movie when it's a full meal, when my bones are sweaty because it's super tense. My heart is pounding, but I'm also laughing and having fun and really having a full experience. And that is very much what we wanted to make with ‘Badlands.’
