Predator Oral History of the Arnold Schwarzenegger film. In June 1. 98. 7, 2. Century Fox released Predator. The story, by first time screenwriters Jim and John Thomas, centered on Maj. Dutch Schaefer Arnold Schwarzenegger, then still not quite having joined the first name only club, the leader of a team of mercenaries sent into the Central American jungle on a rescue mission who come face to face well, Dutch does at least with an alien hunter who makes trophies of mens skulls. The first Hey Arnold The Jungle Movie clip was screened during a ComicCon panel, revealing a reunion of the beloved Nicktoons cast of characters. Helga in The Jungle Movie. Helga is occasionally clumsy, but is also a genius. In the episode The Aptitude Test, in which the class takes a standardized exam, it is. Replicants, superheros, and reboots await you in our Fall Movie Guide. Plan your season and take note of the hotly anticipated indie, foreign, and documentary. The film combined pioneering visual effects, pithy dialogue, abundant gore, big ass guns of all kinds and one ugly motherfer of a now iconic movie monster. It was a hit with audiences upon its release, but in the years since its legacy has only grown. Whether it was the heat of the jungle or the haze of time that accrues over three decades, the stories from people involved took on almost a Rashomon like quality. Why did the studio shut the film down How much of the film was completed at that point estimates range from 9. What happened with the original Predator design Did it look like a cockroach, a fing chicken, a bloody big rat Why did Jean Claude Van Damme who was originally cast to play the alien get fired One thing that everyone whom THR spoke with did agree on, however Filming in the jungle in the dead of summer is, uh, not ideal. The origin of Predator. John Davis, producer This is the first movie I produced. One of the first people I had met in Hollywood and gotten friendly with was Arnold Schwarzenegger. RHUas/maxresdefault.jpg' alt='Watch The Full Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie The Movie' title='Watch The Full Hey Arnold: The Jungle Movie The Movie' />I was an executive at Fox and I worked on a movie that happened right before it called Commando. And then I decided to give in, and I was also working on the script for Predator, which was John Thomas and his brother Jim, the Thomas brothers. Basically they had slipped it under somebodys door at the studio. And we found this script and it was pretty amazing. I mean, literally, it came out of nowhere. And Arnold basically said to me, Youre going to be a producer, you should come to Mexico and you should produce this. So I did. Jim Thomas, screenwriter I had the basic idea for Predator, which at that time was called Hunter, and my brother was laid up from a back injury from the beach, so I said, Well, do you want to write a script with me and he said sure. We just sat out on the beach and composed this thing over a period of about three months. But the original conceit was always, What would it be like to be hunted by a dilettante hunter from another planet the way we hunt big game in Africa And at first, we were thinking about how a band of hunters would branch out and hunt various and dangerous species on the planet, but we said Thats going to be way too complex. So, whats the most dangerous creature Man. And whats the most dangerous men Combat soldiers. At that time, we were doing lots of operations in Central America, so thats where we set it. So after we had written this, we sent a barrage of letters out to every agent and producer that we could think of and got rejections back from virtually everybody. Through a friend of mine, I heard of someone at Fox who was a reader. We got the script to this reader, but there was a change of administration at that time and Larry Gordons administration was just coming in, so this reader turned it over, from what Ive heard, to Michael Levy or Lloyd Levins assistant or reader, and they happened to read it and these young junior executives who had just come in there really liked it. And of course, Larry Gordon got his start with Roger Corman, so it was exactly the kind of movie that he liked. We got the phone call and sold the script without an agent or without a lawyer, which is pretty hard to do in this town. We developed this without a producer and then, when Joel Silver got attached, he had just done Commando and had a good relationship with Arnold. Davis I had seen a small movie John Mc. Tiernan had done Nomads that was really, really, really good. I made Larry sit down and see John Mc. Tiernans film in a screening room, because nobody had ever heard of him. I said, This is the guy that should direct the movie. And Arnold liked him, and thats how it happened. Thomas Our first introduction to Arnold was at John Davis fathers Marvin Davis house up in the Knoll, and it was in a hot tub. Typical Arnold. I remember Arnold, he was actually very serious. He wanted to know about this character that he was going to be playing and we told him, Youve just done a movie, Commando, which we really liked. It was a lot of fun. But when you first are introduced I think the first scene hes carrying a tree over his shoulder and has a chain saw in his hand thats a cartoon character. Youll play this guy more like an everyman, and at that moment when you are crawling up through the mud and this incredible creature is about to destroy you and you have no weapons or anything left, thats a real heros moment. And then the fact that you have an escape, the mud protected you, now youve got the chance to rise back up and take on this creature and be a real hero. Craig Baxley, 2nd unit directorstunt coordinator When this came up, Joel tracked me down. He was a huge fan of The A Team. I was their stunt coordinator I directed a number of the shows also. So I was intrigued by the fact that Joel asked me to shoot all the action. But when John and I had our first couple meetings, John stressed that this was not a war movie, this was a horror movie and that he was gonna shoot all the action. I was getting mixed signals. And Joel just said, No, listen, dont worry about it youre gonna shoot the action. I said, OK, Id like to have my effects man on the show, a guy named Al Di Sarro, and Joel said, Fine, you got em. Jackie Burch, casting director I remember when I first read the script that I thought, I wanna get all Vietnam vets in this movie that could act. And thats how I met Jesse The Body Ventura. Jesse had a great manager, Barry Bloom, and he kept saying. You gotta meet him, you gotta meet him He was a wrestler, but he was a Vietnam vet. And the second I met Jesse, I knew that we had the guy. And I brought him over right away to Joel. And we loved Bill Duke from Commando so that was a no brainer. Mystery Thriller Movies Cowboy Bebop: The Movie. And Carl Weathers I loved from all the Rocky movies and I thought hed be great. And pretty much I think other than Sonny Landham, who played Billy, because I think Joel had a relationship with him Im not sure what his background was, but knowing him he would be fine. It was fun putting those guys together. Richard Chaves, Poncho We were just coming off our tour with Tracers. All the authors of the play Im one of the authors and all the actors in the play were Vietnam veterans. And Jackie came to see me in the play and brought me in for Three Amigos She called my agent and said, Please tell Richard he didnt get the movie, but theres another movie that I think hed be perfect for, and Im going to bring the director to the Coronet to see him. And once John saw me in the play that was it, he wanted me for Poncho from the beginning, which was really cool. Davis Im producing the new Predator due out Aug. Shane Black is directing it. So Shane Black I met Shane on that movie. Shane was a really great writer who had just written this great script called Lethal Weapon. We wanted him to do a rewrite on the Predator script. So we put him in the movie, because hes an actor. And we got him down there, and we asked him to do a rewrite, and he said he was an actor in the movie and not a writer. So he was the first person we killed. He got killed seven minutes into the movie. The film had a cast and a director, but there was still some concern about some of the Predators abilities in the script actually being filmable.