As Hollywood has been reminded fairly regularly over the past decade or so, giving the fans what they want isn’t always a path to commercial and critical glory. Just ask the makers of Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, Snakes on a Plane or Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
It’s perhaps no coincidence that at a time when nobody really wanted another Predator movie, the straight-to-streaming prequel Prey has reinvigorated interest in the long-running saga. Set in North America in 1719, its less-is-more strategy pays off by pitching the alien against a young Native American woman who must use guile and her understanding of the warrior code to fend off an attack from the mandible-sporting alien.
The premise is much more intriguing than the execrable Alien vs Predator movies, and of course the Twittersphere has gone into a predictable loop-the-loop with suggestions for future episodes. Top of the pile is Stephen King’s idea that the extra-terrestrial hunter take on the Children of the Corn, the murderous kids who featured in his 1977 short story (and subsequent torrent of inexplicably bad movies).
Is King joking? Who cares! It’s another sideways option that would keep the Predator franchise searingly alive. Maybe the alien comes down to Earth in search of “He Who Walks Behind the Rows”, the horrible green demon worshipped by the juvenile citizens of Gatlin in King’s novel, and finds he has bitten off more than he can chew. (Can you chew with mandibles?)
Perhaps the evil kiddies get particularly upset at the prospect of a creature walking among them that is centuries older than the 18 or so years marked out as the maximum age for Gatlin’s inhabitants. Do they stuff his tusks with wheat? Could this be like a horror take on Home Alone, except with … you know … extra aliens?
I for one want to see it. Could it happen? It’s hard to identify who actually owns the screen rights to Children of the Corn, but surely Disney (which owns Prey’s production company 20th Century Studios) would be in a financial position to bring this to multiplexes?
Then again, Disney owns the rights to hundreds of characters that would be excellent in a scrap. What about a Predator vs Mandalorian movie? Who wouldn’t shell out to see the extra-terrestrial warrior take on the Force Ghost of Yoda (Sonic-style, spinning prequels edition), or perhaps the Hulk (let them battle it out on the planet Sakaar, please!) I for one would love to see Predator outwitted by Sid Phillips, Andy’s evil neighbour in the first Toy Story movie, though perhaps we are veering back dangerously close to Children of the Corn/Home Alone territory here.
And yet, we really should have learned our lessons by this point. The very reason Predator is interesting to everyone all over again is that the suits didn’t – for once – take the easy option and instead actually bet Prey’s relatively meagre budget on something fresh and original. Yes, the next episode definitely needs to zoom even further away from Planet Obvious if it is to keep us intrigued. Then again, I really, really like the idea of Predator vs Darth Vader.
