Shane Black

Just last week we finally got out first real look at Kong: Skull Island, which showed us that the new King Kong movie, among other things, will look incredible. Which is good news for Shane Black, who has just acquired Skull Island’s cinematographer, Larry Fong, for his Predator sequel.

Earlier this week, The Hollywood Reporter turned a few heads when they announced the casting of Olivia Munn in Shane Black’s upcoming The Predator and slipped in a quick tease about the script. According to their sources, the newest Predator movie would take place in suburbia, leading many people speculate on how this setting would sync up with earlier reports that Black wanted to make a movie that was both very scary and very funny. After all, the suburbs have given birth to countless horror and science-fiction films; in the hands of someone like Shane Black, they could be the perfect setting for the Predator franchise.

Shane Black’s Predator movie has been shuffling its cast around lately. Benicio Del Toro recently stepped out, to be replaced by Narcos star Boyd Holbrook. Now, the movie has gained a cast member, as X-Men: Apocalypse star Olivia Munn has joined to be a part of the alien hunter-hunting team.

While the Predator franchise hasn’t exactly been as fantastic as the Arnold Schwarzenegger-starring debut, excitement is building for Shane Black’s upcoming revival of the series, The Predator. We were pretty disappointed by Benicio Del Toro’s exit earlier this month, but the prospect of Narcos star Boyd Holbrook replacing him was more reassuring. And Black himself is a promising aspect of the project — his Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and this year’s The Nice Guys were both fantastic and funny action movies. He’s very excited to start working on the movie, and already has big plans about the general vibe and how it’ll differ from its predecessors.

It was only a month ago that it was reported that Benicio Del Toro was in talks to star in The Predator, Shane Black’s reboot of the famous monster action series. But now The Hollywood Reporter that Del Toro won’t appear in the film, and Black and producers are back on the hunt for another star. Now the guy close to the lead role is Narcos star Boyd Holbrook.

Marvel Studios is one of the most successful business ventures in moviemaking history, but not everything is sunshine, happiness, and rainbows behind the scenes. It seems like every time another Marvel movie is announced, a director leaves a previous project citing those two heebie-jeebies-inducing words: “creative differences.” The making of Iron Man 3 was no picnic, as both its director Shane Black and one of its stars Rebecca Hall can attest.

Benicio Del Toro has been taking the world of cinematic sc-fi by storm. After starring as the Collector in Guardians of the Galaxy, he’s signed on to a mysterious role in Star Wars: Episode 8, and now it looks like he might be in Shane Black’s Predator sequel.

Neither Shane Black nor Arnold Schwarzenegger have confirmed the actor’s return for The Predator, though the two have expressed interest in the possibility — because how could they not? But one thing is for certain: If Schwarzenegger does come back, he won’t be playing the primary protagonist this time around. Black says as much in a new interview, where he reveals the current name of the hero in his Predator sequel, and discusses his plan to “event-ize” the franchise.

Dwayne Johnson has been rumored for Shane Black’s long-developing adaptation of Doc Savage for some time now. The director of The Nice Guys has been vocal about Johnson being his top choice, and a recent Instagram post only fueled speculation as Johnson revealed he was planning on filming something with Black in 2017 — that something is indeed Doc Savage, confirmed by Johnson in yet another Instagram post earlier today.

Before you get all worried about the Predator part of that headline, rest assured that it’s good news: Fox has actually moved Shane Black’s sequel up by almost an entire month, putting it in early February 2018, likely hoping to replicate the success of similar R-rated fare like Kingsman and Deadpool. The studio has also announced new release dates for two untitled Marvel projects and Robert Rodriguez’s Alita Battle Angel, as well as the spy thriller Red Sparrow.