{"id":116999,"date":"2020-11-19T08:00:11","date_gmt":"2020-11-19T08:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=116999"},"modified":"2020-11-19T17:11:36","modified_gmt":"2020-11-19T17:11:36","slug":"throwback-predator-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/interviews\/throwback-predator-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Throwback: Predator 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s so over the top,\u201d<\/span> laughs Stephen Hopkins, director of sci-fi sequel Predator 2<\/strong><\/em>. \u201cI just sort of went for it and made the biggest, boldest, loudest movie I could make. I was only 29 years old \u2013 I was like a rampant child, running around Los Angeles, blowing the shit out of everything and making things as bloody as possible.\u201d He\u2019s not wrong. 1990\u2019s follow-up to Die Hard<\/strong><\/em> director John McTiernan\u2019s stealthy original has none of the slow-burn patience that made that movie an unexpected classic.<\/p>\n

Instead, Hopkins \u2013 fresh from helming horror sequel Nightmare On Elm Street: The Dream Child<\/strong><\/em> \u2013 reintroduced one of Hollywood\u2019s most iconic extraterrestrials with all the subtlety of a bulldozer. \u201cIt was a film made in a guerilla style by a bunch of maverick people and it was made so fast that no one really told us what to do,\u201d he says with a smile. \u201cIt\u2019s strangely a cult movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Transporting the action from the rainforests of Central America to the concrete-clad jungle of LA, Hopkins\u2019 movie brought us to a sweltering near-future where rival gangs run amok and law enforcement struggles to maintain order. When hardened cop Lieutenant Harrigan (Danny Glover) starts investigating a series of grizzly and seemingly ritualistic turf-war murders, he soon discovers that gun-toting drug dealers are the least of his worries when a familiar foe makes itself known. Packed with all the crass excess viewers had come to expect from late Eighties cinema, the scene was set for Hopkins to expand this budding franchise with an urban take on an increasingly popular character. However, behind the scenes, the film\u2019s journey from page to screen almost fell apart before it even started.<\/p>\n

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Donald Glover plays hardened cop Lieutenant Harrigan.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOriginally, the movie featured Arnold Schwarzenegger\u2019s<\/a> character alongside Danny Glover,\u201d says Hopkins, shedding light on the film\u2019s first script which featured Dutch, the muscle-bound hero of McTiernan\u2019s movie. \u201cIt actually started on a golf course. These guys are playing golf, a helicopter lands and a guy with white hair gets out and it\u2019s Arnold Schwarzenneger with a scar across his face. He comes to LA and of course the cops don\u2019t believe his story.\u201d If original screenwriters Jim and John Thomas had their way, Predator 2<\/strong><\/em> would have seen Dutch share shoot-outs with Glover\u2019s Harrigan as a bullet-heavy double act \u2013 however just before shooting began, everything changed. \u201cTerminator 2: Judgement Day<\/strong><\/em> was going to happen at around the same time and Jim Cameron said to Arnold: \u2018Do one or the other – don\u2019t do both,\u2019\u201d reveals Hopkins, setting the record straight regarding rumours surrounding Arnold\u2019s departure. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to turn down one of the greatest science fiction films ever made. I was quite close to shooting and Arnold suddenly disappeared from the project.\u201d<\/p>\n

Forced to think on his feet amid a writer\u2019s strike that prevented work being carried out on a brand-new script, Hopkins and his team had to pivot: \u201cThe script was hastily rejigged,\u201d he tells us. \u201cI thought setting it in a city was a good idea and in 1997, which was then the future. Global warming was happening, the whole place was heating up and LA had become this Latin, Cuban gang-fest. Jim and John Thomas knew what they wanted and producer Joel Silver was clear about what kind of film it was: a mixture of western and science-fiction,\u201d he says. \u201cLA had turned into a tough western town where all hell had broken loose.\u201d To craft his not-so-distant future, Hopkins kept things low-key: \u201cWe didn\u2019t have a huge amount of money. I was able to snag Larry Paull who\u2019d been the designer on Blade Runner<\/strong><\/em> and Back To The Future<\/strong><\/em>. A lot of great future films were kind of retro, so we put Seventies cars in our future for no apparent reason and everyone wore clothes that protected them from the heat. We shot in a way to make it feel like a dirty, industrial town that\u2019d gone wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Producer Joel Silver wanted Predator 2 to be a “mixture of western and science-fiction”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When it came to his titular city hunter, Hopkins relied upon the prosthetic wizardry of the creature\u2019s original designer, Stan Winston \u2013 with in-suit performer Kevin Peter Hall also returning. \u201cAny sequence with the Predator was complicated,\u201d says Hopkins, recalling the limitations of early Nineties visual effects. \u201cIt was at a stage of technology where you could do more but in order to have the time to shoot all these complicated things there was a balance. If the Predator had its mask off, there were two or three different people operating the face and head. Stan Winston was a genius and came up with all these crazy ideas,\u201d says Hopkins, remembering Winston\u2019s subtle redesign of the creature and its armour. \u201cThere were a few things that it carried around \u2013 we worked together to hone them down and make sure that there weren\u2019t so many that it was silly. The Predator had been seen heavily at the end of the first film so we couldn\u2019t hide it in the shadows. We had to be careful about how to show it and make it bigger and better than it was before.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said, with so many action scenes on his shot list, Hopkins\u2019 task was far from easy: \u201cIt was a great education in filmmaking,\u201d he says earnestly. \u201cIn those days none of the effects were digital. We spent about three weeks at the end of production just shooting the Predator for all the scenes with motion control cameras. Almost every shot was a huge set-up. Apart from the dialogue scenes, everything was action, visual effects or complicated. There was nothing simple about it at all.\u201d One iconic scene featuring the Predator introducing CIA alien hunter Peter Keyes (Gary Busey in a role initially intended for Schwarzenegger) to a grizzly end was particularly difficult to capture. \u201cThe slaughter house sequence in UV was unbelievably complicated because not only did it have to be lit in all these different ways \u2013 but Kevin, who was amazing as the Predator, had to be on wires, leap and do fight scenes in almost darkness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Predator
Any sequence with the Predator was complicated…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With so much working against him, Hopkins welcomed any simple fixes he could find. While crafting a scene involving his battle-weary baddy cauterising a wounded arm in an old lady\u2019s toilet, in-camera tricks worked wonders. \u201cWe made the bathroom smaller than it should have been to make the Predator feel huge,\u201d reveals the director. \u201cEven the glowing stuff he puts on his arm to heal himself \u2013 that was really glowing, fluorescent stuff. It wasn\u2019t something we added in afterwards, it was from a Halloween shop.\u201d This knack for thrifty innovation resulted in one of the film\u2019s most memorable moments: \u201cThe Predator\u2019s spaceship almost didn\u2019t appear in the film because it was too expensive,\u201d he says. \u201cWe came up with a style that could have looked terrible but kind of worked \u2013 an organic version of the Predator itself. I made it look gritty rather and chose the location carefully. By doing it in the subway, I chose not to see a lot of it, that way we could afford to do it.\u201d As for that infamous inclusion of the Xenomorph skull on the Predator\u2019s trophy rack? \u201cStan Winston came up with that idea. It was meant to be a throwaway but I featured it more than I was supposed to,\u201d he laughs. \u201cThey were both Fox movies so we were allowed to do it. I thought it was a riot.\u201d<\/p>\n

When production wrapped, Hopkins was eager to unleash his movie onto fervent fans. However despite a strong debut, the absence of the original\u2019s leading man caught some viewers off guard. \u201cIt had a big initial opening weekend if I remember correctly \u2013 but I think many people were disappointed that Arnold wasn\u2019t in it. A lot of people like the film and some prefer it to the original \u2013 just because it\u2019s in a city and more contemporary.\u201d For Hopkins however, creating Predator 2<\/strong><\/em> was a once-in-a-lifetime experience: \u201cIt was a very exciting time for me. I was in my late twenties and it was a big leap up in Hollywood. It was a demanding and political film \u2013 but there\u2019s lots of things in it that you just wouldn\u2019t be able to do now. You wouldn\u2019t be able to shoot explosions in downtown LA or helicopters landing in the middle of the street \u2013 we did it all for real.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three decades, two canon sequels and a couple of questionable Alien Vs Predator<\/strong><\/em> movies later and both the character and Hopkins\u2019 film have forged strong bonds with viewers. \u201cPeople get more fond of it as they go through life,\u201d suggests Hopkins. \u201cThere\u2019s something about it that reminds them of a fun age of filmmaking where movies didn\u2019t take life too seriously. It\u2019s kind of a romp, isn\u2019t it? It\u2019s silly and you\u2019re not supposed to take it to heart. I think people watch Predator 2<\/strong><\/em> and enjoy the big, fabulous last hurrah of Eighties filmmaking where it\u2019s politically incorrect, overtly loud and over the top. It\u2019s a bit camp and at the same time occasionally very frightening. It\u2019s a good combo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Predator 2 is available on Blu-ray<\/a> from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Director Stephen Hopkins returns to a hazy near-future LA to recall the difficult and sometimes dangerous task of bringing sci-fi sequel Predator 2 to life…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":117003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":false,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[2617,7],"tags":[1932],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/Predator-2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116999"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}