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

‘The Last of Us’ Series From HBO Expected To Shoot In Calgary

The Ronin can confirm that HBO is indeed planning to shoot The Last of Us series in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Based on the popular video game from Naughty Dog it was recently announced the main leads will be played by Game of Thrones alum Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey.

Filming is said to be taking place from early July and finish early June of 2022 (confirming info previously shared by Knight Edge Media).

It’s possible they could pause filming within that year to allow Pedro Pascal to leave to shoot for his Disney+ series The Mandalorian in California. When The Mandalorian Season 3 is actually filming hasn’t been confirmed but during the fall/winter would make a lot of sense as I wouldn’t recommend HBO film scenes for The Last of Us outside during an Alberta winter. There had been some confusion previously when the Season 3 shoot got mixed up with The Book of Boba Fett. Pedro’s busy schedule could explain why Obi-Wan Kenobi is set to begin filming next month in Los Angeles.

The Last of Us series is being developed by Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann.

Twenty years after a fungal infection obliterated most of the U.S. population and turned the victims into infected monstrosities, Joel is tasked with escorting Ellie to the Fireflies to help reverse engineer a cure. However, this isnt easy for either of them, since Joel has been left almost permanently bitter after the death of his daughter, and Ellie is distrusting of him.

Alberta would be sort of the perfect place for rugged and wild terrain for the show.

UPDATE: We’ve also learned that 20th Century Studios’ Predator 5 aka Skulls is said to be finishing pre-production tomorrow and likely will begin shooting sometime in April-May. Oddly enough, there hasn’t been any actual cast announcements concerning the film that is being directed by Dan Trachtenberg (10 Cloverfield Lane) but they seem to be deep in the casting process.

Dan posted this today on Twitter.

The Canadian province was previously used for Jason Reitman’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

‘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