Dan Trachtenberg Doing Another Predator Movie for 20th Century Titled ‘Badlands’
Prey director Dan Trachtenberg is coming back to the Predator universe with an upcoming movie he’s set to write and direct for 20th Century Studios, Deadline reported earlier today.
The movie is not a direct sequel to Prey, though Deadline stresses that that project remains in development at 20th Century but will be released after this upcoming film. Amber Midthunder would be coming back, marking the first time a lead actor reprises their role in the Predator franchise.
Titled Badlands, the new movie will also feature a female lead but will be set sometime in the future, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Filming should begin as soon as later this year, as the studio and the director are already meeting with talent for the top roles. It’s a high priority for them, Deadline said.
Hulu’s Prey earned some of the franchise’s best reviews in years back in 2022, in part thanks to its down-to-basics approach that many studios are now trying to follow. (Universal is reportedly trying to cut costs and scale in their next installments of Fast & Furious and Jurassic World, and Disney is also cutting down on non-IP movies, as Bob Iger has said over and over again.) It’s assumed that this is the playbook they will follow once again, but it remains to be seen whether Badlands goes to Hulu or, more likely, gets a theatrical release.
Disney is betting big on those legacy franchises they inherited from 20th Century Fox. This year, a new Alien movie, Alien: Romulus, is coming to theaters led by Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla) and directed by Fede Álvarez. Noah Hawley is working on an Alien-related series for Hulu that is currently in production. And though they haven’t officially touched Terminator since that sixth film in 2019, James Cameron said a while ago that there were behind-the-scenes movements on a new installment for that franchise.
Trachtenberg was at one point announced as the director of an episode of the last season of Stranger Things. However, in a recent report saying Frank Darabont will be helming a couple of episodes of the new season, which is currently in production, it was mentioned that he may have left the project altogether. This might be the reason why.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
