This might be the biggest news of the day, but it’s also the saddest, at least to me. Dan Trachtenberg, who has revived the Predator franchise with Prey, Predator: Killer of Killers, and Predator: Badlands, has just inked a three-year deal (via Deadline) with Paramount. So long, Disney and 20th Century Studios.
That means no more Predator movies from Trachtenberg for the forseeable future, and that really sucks. Predator: Badlands wasn’t a huge hit, but it did okay with $184M worldwide against a $105M budget. Perhaps that wasn’t good enough. Disney might’ve lost money on it, but not a ton. Critical reviews were strong, though, and fans genuinely wanted to see more. I know I did.
Trachtenberg has a long history with Paramount that might’ve played into his decision. His debut feature, 10 Cloverfield Lane, was released by the studio in 2016 and was a sizable $110M hit.
Is Trachtenberg being brought back to do another Cloverfield movie? Or, as Jeff Sneider teases, is he on the verge of reviving World War Z? A sequel to that Brad Pitt-led zombie thriller has been on-and-off for years, and would fit with Trachtenberg’s style of blockbuster filmmaking. The original, directed by David Fincher in 2013, earned $540M globally and legit demanded a sequel, but never got one. Trachtenberg could be the guy to finally make it happen.
