.

.

This movie is going to get its own page, because first of all, there’s so much to talk about it deserves it, and secondly because I’m getting a really good vibe about the film.  Robert Rodriguez, director Nimrod Antal, and actor Adrien Brody (yes, Academy Award winner Adrien Brody) were on hand at South by Southwest to promote the movie, starting off with a special presentation Friday night at the Alamo Ritz Theater, then today with press conferences for quote-hungry press members.  I’ll start with the footage screening Friday night.  We packed ourselves into the Alamo Ritz, and Robert Rodriguez was the first to come in and talk.  Rodriguez stressed several times that this is indeed a Troublemaker Studios film, and that Fox gave them a tremendous amount of creative freedom on making the picture.  We were treated to the full trailer, several weeks before it goes out officially.  Then a little later we were treated to a second trailer, ever so slightly different than the first, but with several new shots, and almost 100% more Danny Trejo.  Robert brought up director Nimrod Antal to share his thoughts, and as the two men talked, we were treated to an ongoing slideshow behind them of some pretty amazing concept art.  At one point Rodriguez brought up KNB Effects’ headmaster Greg Nicotero, who also brought with him the “original” Predator head.  Did you know Nicotero worked on the original movie?  And here’s something interesting, Rodriguez dropped a bit of trivia info on us from the first movie.  There have been rumors for years that James Cameron came up with the Predator mouth, though it’s never been confirmed until now.  Robert asked James directly, and Cameron confirmed he did indeed come up with the Predator mouth, as a means of completing the overall imposing appearance of the character.  Interesting.

Rodriguez revealed that the original Predator does in fact appear in the new film, though I believe he said it was in the form of a flashback (would kind of have to be, right?).  I pulled audio from my question and their answers during the Q&A, but I’m having a VERY hard time making it out (crowded press rooms here), so here’s a bit of it, as best as I can understand what they’re saying.  I’ll go back and do a more full transcribing later… catch whatever I missed.

Mark Walters: I was wondering if you could tell us, outside of the original Predator appearing in this one, are there any direct tie-ins to the original movie, and if so can you kind of hint towards that?

Robert Rodriguez: There is a reference to a ghost story heard… one of the characters does recognize the original Predator when they see it.  And that’s a nod to the original story.

Nimrod Antal: But there’s also moments, there’s also shots, there’s also, you know… it was finding a balance of paying homage to the original but not being repetitive.

Robert Rodriguez: You’ve seen those kinds of movies where they try too hard to cater to the fan base, which ends up being a terrible bastardization.  We didn’t want to do a movie that was just a rip off of what was done before.  But Adrien does say “GET TO THE CHOPPER!”

Mark Walters: Nice.

Robert Rodriguez: Yeah, that will be left for gag reel.

Stealthy iPhone photo (Nimrod Antal on left, Robert Rodriguez on right, logo on screen)

Perhaps the coolest aspect of being there for the teaser footage was getting an exclusive SXSW poster for PREDATORS!  This is definitely the hot ticket item of the festival.  Rodriguez signed them ahead of time, and all attendees of the Friday night presentation received one on their way out… along with a PREDATORS laser sight light pointer, and a t-shirt.  Nice.

.

And this just in, here’s the regular-style one-sheet you’ll be seeing in theaters soon.

Click on image to see the full-size version

On Saturday morning, I headed to the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Austin to chat with Robert, Nimrod, and Adrien Brody, who was a last-minute addition to SXSW.  During this morning press conference, Brody was obviously highly enthusiastic about being in the new film, and very passionate about the franchise.  I had a chance to ask him about just how cool all of this was for him.

Mark Walters: Adrien, you’ve worked with a variety of directors with different genres, kind of all over the map.  Tell us specifically about working with Nimrod and also working with Robert, the experiences that separated that out from your past experiences, and since you noted you’re such a fan of the original film, what was your biggest geek-out moment in this one?

Adrien Brody: Well.. geek-out then, or now?

Mark Walters: I remember seeing in the trailer when you had all the Predator laser sights on you, and I thought “That’s gotta be cool to have that going on.”

Adrien Brody: That was an amazing day in and of itself, because they created the atmosphere, the physical atmosphere that we were in was so intense.  This smoke-filled contained space, the entire crew has these masks on, except us.  And I’m hyperventilating on there, and they have like these chunks of this supposedly non-toxic material that wouldn’t come off your boots for like a month.  But this stuff was like, flowing through the air, and it was like… epic, it was epic, flames bursting, and it was just so exciting.  For the most part, my character, we’re all adrenalized through this whole process… it was very exciting.  When PREDATOR came out in ’88 I was a freshman in high school.  I was with my boys sneaking in to the front row smoking cigarettes, okay, and gawking.  So, this is a dream come true for me, because when I was a scrawny little 14-year-old, there’s no way I could’ve every envisioned being passed the gauntlet to play a character of this caliber in a film this visceral.  And that being said, I’m greatly appreciative of both Robert and Nimrod, because both of them championed me, and I KNOW I’m not the obvious choice… I get that.  I know that I probably wouldn’t even have been on the studio’s list, let alone down at the bottom.  You can ask Robert, I’m very persistent and I’m very focused, and you know I get my work, and I know what I need to do to deliver a level of truth and authenticity with a role like this, and also make it fun and exciting.  I put on 25 pounds for this role, and that wasn’t the point, they didn’t hire me to be a bodybuilder, I’m not a body builder.  But I felt like in order to be playful with it as well, it shouldn’t distract, but it’s not the physical strength that helps the alien with energy based weapons and higher tracking skills… you know, a culture of hunting, and trophy hunting, and outsmart them.  So I’m really grateful for that opportunity, they’ve both been incredible collaborators, they’ve both been very receptive to my thoughts and ideas.  Robert, as a producer, I think has been a very creative force, allowing all of this to happen in a contained space.  Here we shot a studio movie, but it was very much like independent terms, which is a remarkable thing, which actually was very similar to KING KONG.  Peter had a very similar operation going which was wonderful, and you’re given a lot of creative freedom with, and trust from the studio.  And Nimrod’s my boy, and really looked out for me in this process.  He’s tried to keep the focus very much on what needs to be there, what the moment needs, and not lose track of that.  Keeping the Predator a serious threat.  There were techniques I would come up with in my reading, like “How about this, how about if I set this kind of trap and we did this…”  It might work, but then we had discussions about how it might weaken my own character if Predator fell for a certain trap, so there were things where it was great to have Nim’s insight in the overall picture.  It was really wonderful, so I’m really excited.

The following is a quick video from the photo call after the press conference. Watch it through to the end (and don’t blink), and you’ll see a quick snipit of the actual animatronic Predator head… the original Predator, as operated by Greg Nicotero. They were very adamant about NO PHOTOGRAPHY OR VIDEO of it, but I managed to get a second or two. I cannot even begin to describe how cool that thing is in person.

Stay tuned for more news on PREDATORS!

Be Sociable, Share!

• 
•