‘Predator 5’: Amber Midthunder From ‘Legion’ In The Mix For The Lead Role?

The Ronin has come across information that points at actress Amber Midthunder as being in the mix for the upcoming Predator 5 from director Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane). Amber is likely best known from her roles in shows such as the X-Men series Legion, the western thriller Hell or High Water, and the new Roswell reboot.

The actress posted a bunch of blood droplets on a image post from Trachtenberg’s Instagram account for some special effects test they were conducting behind the scenes. A post that that happened to be liked by the president of 20th Century Studios, Steve Asbell, which feels like a strong hint she is indeed involved with the film.

Amber isn’t a stranger to productions shot in Canada both Legion (Vancouver) and the upcoming Liam Neesen action flick The Ice Road (Winnipeg) were shot in the country, which means she likely won’t have a lot of issues working in Calgary, Alberta. Apparently, the third season of Roswell, New Mexico was supposed to complete filming in April and could mean Amber has an opening in her schedule.

UPDATE (AUGUST 14, 2021): Amber Midthunder posted these images a few weeks back on Instagram that are likely from the Calgary Stampede (a huge yearly event in the city), and would confirm she’s in Alberta.

Filming on Predator 5 is set to begin early next month in Calgary, Alberta as Dan has assembled a nifty production team that consists of cinematographer Jeff Cutter (10 Cloverfield Lane), production designer Kara Lindstrom (Den of Thieves), and stunt coordinator Steven McMichael (Damnation).

Given how soon production begins I have to assume casting announcements are going to be made in the next couple of weeks. Interestingly enough, the new film shares the same casting director that is also working on Martin Scorsese’s Killers of The Flower Moon, another film expected to have a large cast of native actors and could signal that Dan might be aiming to fill other roles with unknowns.

It likely means that the lawsuit that is reportedly coming from the original screenwriters of the 1987 film likely won’t have a huge impact on delaying the fifth installment’s shoot.

A release date has yet to be announced by Disney or 20th Century Studios but there had been teases from trades about it potentially being released next summer.

PREDATOR – Dutch (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a soldier of fortune, is hired by the U.S. government to secretly rescue a group of politicians trapped in Guatemala. But when Dutch and his team, which includes weapons expert Blain (Jesse Ventura) and CIA agent George (Carl Weathers), land in Central America, something is gravely wrong. After finding a string of dead bodies, the crew discovers they are being hunted by a brutal creature with superhuman strength and the ability to disappear into its surroundings.

‘The Predator’ Actor Kyle Strauts Expected To Suit-Up For ‘Predator 5’

The Ronin has learned that Canadian actor and stuntman Kyle Strauts is most likely going to be reprising the role of the alien hunter in Dan Trachtenberg’s Predator 5, although we weren’t able to confirm. Kyle previously suited-up in Shane Black’s The Predator and posted a heap of behind-the-scenes images of the Emissary Predators that got cut out of the final cut, which Kyle played.

Kyle recently worked with Kick-Ass 2 director Jeff Wadlow on the revival of Are You Afraid of The Dark? in British Columbia.

Filming on Predator 5 is set to begin early next month in Calgary, Alberta as Dan has assembled a nifty production team that consists of cinematographer Jeff Cutter (10 Cloverfield Lane), production designer Kara Lindstrom (Den of Thieves), and stunt coordinator Steven McMichael (Damnation).

We’re still waiting on casting announcements concerning who’ll be playing the humans in the new film, but we’re hearing that Dan might end up hiring unknowns for some of the lead roles.

There is also a good chance that ADI is working on the creature/special effects.

While trades have teased a Summer 2020 release for the film, Disney/20th Century Studios haven’t announced a date for the sci-fi action flick.

‘Predator 5’ Adds ‘Den of Thieves’ Production Designer & ‘Damnation’ Stunt Coordinator – Filming Begins Next Month In Calgary

The Disney-owned 20th Century Studios is moving forward with a fifth Predator film directed by 10 Cloverfield Lane’s Dan Trachtenberg and is said to be a large departure from previous installments. As instead of muscle-bound soldiers or cops, it’s rumored that the main human protagonist is going to be a young female Comanche warrior. 

Dan will be reuniting with cinematographer Jeff Cutter, the two previously worked together on Bad Robot’s 10 Cloverfield Lane. 

The Ronin has now learned that two more folks have joined Predator 5’s production team with Den of Thieves production designer Kara Lindstrom and stunt coordinator Steven McMichael (Damnation, Wynonna Earp) have boarded the sci-fi action flick. Steven was once Hugh Jackman’s stunt double in the original X-Men movie and has moved up the ranks in the stunt world since. 

Kara has been posting amazing landscape pictures from Alberta on Instagram. There has been talk they’ll be using beautiful and remote areas in Alberta for various exteriors needed for the shoot. 

Production in Calgary, Alberta, Canada is confirmed to begin June 7 and wrap by August 20.  There is an assumption we’ll start hearing some casting news with the production less than a month away.

The previous installment The Predator from director Shane Black was meant to lead to multiple contemporary sequels as teased with that ridiculous predator-killer suit post-credit scene. However, this next film isn’t expected to continue that story or characters, which might relieve a lot of fans that weren’t thrilled with how The Predator turned out.

Every Predator sequel since Predator 2 has attempted to coax Arnold Schwarzenegger to return as his iconic franchise character Dutch, but it remains to be seen if they’ll even attempt that if Predator 5 is going to taking place too far in the past for that to make sense.

Neither Disney nor 20th Century Studios have officially given the Predator sequel an official release date or announced the film’s release date.

UPDATE: ‘Predator 5’ Shoot In Calgary Taking Place From June To August

Predator 5 aka Skulls has been previously confirmed for a shoot in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with 10 Cloverfield Lane director Dan Trachtenberg and cinematographer Jeff Cutter. It’ll be the first installment with the franchise under Disney ownership after the merger saw them take over 20th Century Fox, now re-branded as 20th Century Studios.

The Ronin has learned about some updated production dates as location scouting is underway in Alberta they are planning on a shoot that will kick-off on June 7 and wrap filming by August 20. This would be different from the dates mentioned by AVP Galaxy last month.

Shane Black’s The Predator was released back in 2018 and that one shot in Vancouver (used for Alien vs. Predator: Requiem). The film was a bit of a critical and commercial blunder for the studio earning a poultry $160.5 million globally on a budget of $88 million, it also underwent reshoots removing a sub-plot with the Emissary Predators.

Hopefully, Dan is able to make the version he wants to do without meddling from franchise producers during production or in post.

Predator 5 is without a release date or an official cast.

’10 Cloverfield Lane’ Cinematographer Jeff Cutter Joins ‘Predator 5’ Production Team

As production on 20th Century Studios’ Predator 5 aka Skulls is expected to kick-off in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. There seems to be an reunion of sorts on director Dan Trachtenberg’s production team.

10 Cloverfield Lane cinematographer Jeff Cutter has signed-up for the fifth Predator installment as he posted on his Instagram account a location scout in Alberta with Dan. The pair also worked together on the pilot episode of Amazon’s hit mature themed comic book series The Boys.

The last cinematographer to work on the franchise was Larry Fong (300, Kong: Skull Island, Watchmen) on Shane Black’s The Predator.

Disney is now the owners of the Alien and Predator franchises from the merger, it’ll be interesting to see what the new era will look like. While there was talk of Ridley Scott developing another film for 20th Century the next Alien project is a streaming series from Noah Hawley (Legion, Fargo). The next Predator installment will take place within the world of Native American culture and could bring it back to it’s roots of the 1987 original. Unlike the other Predator movies, we’re expected to see a female protagonist and likely will be a nod to the comic book character Machiko Noguchi.

Predator 5 is currently without an official cast or release date.

SOURCE: JEFF CUTTER

‘Predator 5’ In The Works For Almost 4 Years According To Director Dan Trachtenberg – Planned To Mirror ‘Cloverfield’ Films?

Yesterday, it was revealed by Deadline that 20th Century Studios and Disney would be moving forward with a new Predator film loosely being referred to Predator with Dan Trachtenberg (The Boys, Black Mirror, 10 Cloverfield Lane) set to direct. The project was unknowingly revealed by Discussing Film late last year under the working title Skulls and had been kept under the radar thanks to the working title/vague logline throwing people off the scent. This new report from Deadline first revealing it’s ties to the Predator franchise and Disney’s desire to keep things chugging along.

According to Dan on Twitter, they’ve been working on Predator 5 for much longer than a year, closely to four years. He also seemingly suggests they had been planning on quietly making and releasing the film as a surprise. I have to assume hearkening back to how his film 10 Cloverfield Lane was shot as something else and then connected to the Cloverfield franchise.

TRACHTENBERG: “This was meant to be a surprise. Been working on this for almost 4 years now. I am very sad that what we had in store for how you could discover this movie will no longer happen. It’s a bummer. But also…YAY!”

The film is expected to be a period piece focusing on a female Comanche human character. It sounds like a potential Native American proxy to expanded universe character Machiko Noguchi (a Japanese human inducted into a predator tribe) and would mean it could skew more in the western genre but other than that we don’t know too much about the project. It had been established back in Predator 2 that the aliens had been coming to Earth for hundreds of years to hunt and placing this new film in the past could be one way to make a film different enough from the previous four installments.

Maybe we’ll see Julia Jones (The Mandalorian, Westworld, Wind River) in the role?

Fans like myself were bummed-out when we finally got a look at Shane Black’s 2018 film The Predator and it was a giant mess with a bizarre sequel bait ending that landed flat on it’s face. Hopefully, this means that Alien 5/Alien V is seriously being considered after that spec-script tease from franchise screenwriters David Giler and Walter Hill was making the rounds on social media.

SOURCE: DAN TRACHTENBERG

‘Predator 5’ Officially Announced With Director Dan Trachtenberg Attached – Won’t Be A Continuation of ‘The Predator’

Deadline has announced a huge update concerning the future of the Predator franchise as Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane) has been hired by 20th Century Studios/Disney to direct an untitled Predator 5 that will have a script from Patrick Aison (Treadstone, Jack Ryan).

The film isn’t expected to be a sequel to Shane Black’s soft-reboot The Predator.

Apparently, Discussing Film caught-wind of the project’s production grid information almost a entire year ago and didn’t make the connection it was part of the Predator franchise as it was under the working title of Skulls (the Predator collects skulls).

…will follow a Comanche woman who goes against gender norms and traditions to become a warrior.

It’s unconfirmed if Skulls’ logline is the official one they’ll actually be using as that information is year old and could have changed since then as films normally do over a year or more of development/script changes. The Predator and Alien franchises always have multiple incarnations in the development stages before the cameras roll on each installment.

However, the crux of Skulls does sound very similar to Machiko Noguchi, a Japanese human character that is inducted into a predator tribe after proving herself worthy.

A new Predator film so soon have the box office disaster of 2018’s The Predator would obviously signal Disney’s commitment to continuing 20th Century Studios’ legacy franchises and might mean that new Alien projects could be next.

They’re already moving forward with a new Planet of The Apes film from director Wes Ball along with a new spec-script for Alien V from franchise screenwriters/executive producers David Giler and Walter Hill.

SOURCE: DEADLINE