No Predator movie since the first Predator has been particularly good. Writer/director Shane Black (who also co-starred in the first Predator, directed by John McTiernan) hopes to buck that trend with his version of the material, The Predator, due in theaters towards the end of next summer. The marketing campaign for the film is just ramping up, including this first animated look at the film’s poster and ... it’s totally awesome.

I guess you can’t tell much from a poster, even an animated one, but I am very hopeful for this project. Black, the writer of the original Lethal Weapon, and later the director of films like Kiss Kiss Bang BangIron Man 3, and The Nice Guys, has just the right temperament for the material. And he’s got a good cast, too: Boyd Holbrook (who, according to Wikipedia, plays “a former Marine and Special Forces commando who discovers the existence of the fierce Predators but finds that no one believes they exist”) along with Olivia Munn, Trevante Rhodes, Keegan-Michael Key, Sterling K. Brown, and Jacob Tremblay, hopefully as the Predator. (Apparently, he plays Holbrook’s son. Boo.)

Black’s even working with Fred Dekker, his collaborator on The Monster Squad, on the screenplay. How could this go wrong? I mean, sure, it still could; Predators had a great cast and creative pedigree, and it still totally stunk. But fourth time’s the charm? Fingers and Predator mandibles crossed. The Predator opens on August 3, 2018.

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