Prey London film premiere 2023

1. The Rattlesnake could "see" the predator whilst invisible as a Rattler has pits on its head that allows the snake to sense heat and track prey through its thermal radiation signature, much like a predator.
2. The Feral Predator's bio mask is made from the skull of a River Ghost from Predators (2010).
3. Though still advanced, the technology used by the Feral Predator is much simpler than previous films e.g. the camouflage sections are larger, less armor, and the HUD is very streamlined and simplistic.
4. Sarii, Naru's dog and constant companion, had no previous movie experience, and was adopted specifically for the movie only 2 months before shooting. Sarii's real name is Coco, and she is a Carolina Dog, a rare breed of wild dog that followed the first humans to cross the Bering Strait 16,500 years ago. Trachtenberg wanted to cast a dog that would be period-accurate, and Carolina Dogs are direct descendants of those dogs. Amber Midthunder (Naru) called Coco "a little bit of a hot mess - but in a sweet way" and said that "obviously it all ended up fine, because she was great, and everybody loves her."
5. During an interview with SlashFilm, director Dan Trachtenberg mentioned the film's creative team struggled with what he called the "The Hunt for Red October (1990) thing," where the characters speak Russian before transitioning into English. He said they never quite came up with a way to make that work, so instead, the film was shot in English and Comanche. "Both languages are spoken, but when you hear English, it's as if it's Comanche," he said. "But what Jhane is speaking to is on Hulu, there will be a Comanche dub of the movie, so you can watch the entire movie in Comanche with the original actors returning to perform their roles. In an interview with Empire, Trachtenberg went on to say "There's a lip-match (choosing words to match the actor's mouth movements as closely as possible) that we do now. It won't be like watching old kung fu movies."
6. When Naru says, "Do it!", is a throwback to Arnold Schwarzenegger's line, "Do it, do it now!" from the original Predator (1987).
7. In an interview of the Hollywood Reporter, the director (Dan Trachtenberg) said that Billy Sole, the native American tracker in Predator (1986) (interpreted by Sonny Landham who was half-sioux), in Predator (1986) led to the idea of this movie. He was too young to watch the film when it came out but he heard from older kids that there was this scene where Billy "stood on a bridge over a waterfall and fought the Predator. But when I eventually saw the movie, that scene was not in it. (Laughs.) The beginning of it is, but then it cuts away. So the seed was planted, and then I thought, 'Wouldn't it be awesome to have a movie that focuses on that character's story?' And Prey isn't exactly that, but it is, spiritually."
8. Co-producer John Davis said that he feels the original Predator (1987) "was a wonderful, interesting movie and I know what worked about it." He added, "I feel like we kind of never got back there again. We ended up in different places. I think this is a worthy complement to the first one. It's going to be as good."
9. Dane DiLiegro, who plays the Predator, is 6'9" (2.06 m), which is 5.5" (14 cm) shorter than Kevin Peter Hall, who played the original Predator. Hall was 7'2.5" (2,2 m) tall.
10. Jhane Myers (the producer of the film) is an enrolled member of the Comanche Nation.
11. As of August 9th, 2022, this is now the highest rated Predator movie, according to Rotten Tomatoes, and the all-time highest viewed premiere of any TV show and movie on Hulu, ever.
12. Dane DiLiegro (the Predator) performed all the acting, stunts and motion capture for his character, without a stunt double.
13. The Comanche language is a Numic language of the indigenous, Uto-Aztecan family.
14. Regarding updating Predator's iconic helmet, "The trick is there had been so many Predator movies, comic books, and toys. Everybody knows what Predator's helmet looks like, right? So we came up with a bone-type helmet that speaks to the fact that he hasn't yet really built a helmet, but he has found a creature skull that allows him to protect his face," said Tom Woodruff, Jr. Though primitive in appearance in comparison with a classic Predator helmet, "You can see these touches of technology that are added to it, giving him his heat vision, etc.," said Woodruff, Jr. "I like that the tri-laser sight is embedded into the actual skull itself. We wanted to bring those natural accents into the costume. We've seen the metal helmet, but once again, maybe this guy 300 years ago didn't have access to that same technology."
15. 20th Century Studios (now owned by Disney) announced in November 2020 that it engaged 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) director Dan Trachtenberg to direct a fifth installment in the Predator series. The script was being written by Patrick Aison, whose producer-writer credits include the series Kingdom (2014), Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan (2018) and Treadstone (2019). Trachtenberg was bummed that news of the film leaked and tweeted, "This was meant to be a surprise. Been working on this for almost four 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!"
16. Debuted No. 1 on Hulu. It Is The Biggest Movie Premiere in the Streaming Service History.
17. Adding to the challenge of maintaining his 'Beast Mode' posture to hide the length of the neck, Dane DiLiegro also had to withstand hot weather and the weight of the Feral Prey suit. As foggy and overcast as certain scenes in the film appear, it could be blazing hot at times. DiLiegro "would flex his arm and sweat would just drip right out of the foam latex," said Gillis. "We did the math, and between his body weight and the creature [suit], he was about 300 pounds. Dane weighs about 240, so we had about 60 pounds of wet rubber on this guy."
18. In the film Dakota Beavers (Taabe) plays Amber Midthunder's (Naru) older brother, while in actuality Dakota Beavers is three years younger than Amber Midthunder.
19. When the plot and then the movie poster were released, Chris R. Notarize pointed out the similarities between this and the 2019 fan short film Warrior: Predator by filmmaker Chris R. Notarize about a 16th Century Native American girl fighting Predators.
20. Perhaps the most versatile device used by the Feral Predator is its shield, which serves both an offensive and defensive purpose, and is comprised of a multitude of wedge-shaped segments that open and close like a fan. One of the things that guided the decision to give Feral Predator a thin collapsible shield was that "it's always a challenge to pack everything into a Predator's wrist [gauntlet]," said Gillis. "There's always some cheating involved. So we kept the shield very thin like it's some sort of metal alloy that's just super thin and mechanical. The device was executed by Jon Miller, who builds all this mind-numbing stuff, he's so good at metal surfaces." One of the great things about the digital world, said Gillis, is that "you can have really photoreal deployment of weapons that end up as a physical thing, the in-between moments where you can get all of these things to move and shift and it's really brilliant." Both Alec and Tom had nothing but praise for the show's digital team. "Ryan Cook, the VFX supervisor, and his folks did a fantastic job bringing the physical reality of what we did into the CGI world," said Gillis.
21. Whether intentional or not, the film shares similarities with the fan film Warrior: Predator (2019), most notably the setting and the main character who even has near identical face paint to Naru. When asked about this, the fan film's director Chris R. Notarile stated that Disney and 20th Century Fox never contacted him nor have they compensated him.
22. Director Dan Trachtenberg has said that this was a 'David & Goliath' story.
23. While the original Predator sported a self-destruct device with a massive blast radius, "[Trachtenberg] wanted something that was not going to be, 'push a button and wipe out the world,'" said Woodruff, Jr. "but could inflict enough damage to keep people's minds working." Within one of the gauntlets there were three little round ports. The ADI team created three small Fléchette Discs that the VFX team then animated to pop out of the gauntlet, at which point the movie cuts to a distant shot and the audience sees a ball of fire erupt through the trees. "[Trachtenberg] wanted this to be the precursor of the nuclear wrist bomb," said Gillis.
24. Released 35 years after the original Predator (1987).
25. An important consideration throughout the Feral Predator suit build was that director Dan Trachtenberg wanted the alien hunter to move differently than had been previously seen. "He just wanted it to be able to move fluidly, to have some kind of grace," said Tom Woodruff, Jr., who praised Dane DiLiegro's performance inside the suit, "He really captured what Dan wanted to see in a performance." Alec Gillis added, "Dane is such a bulletproof guy. Not only is he an excellent actor, but his physical training, his pro athletic career, prepared him for the kind of grueling preparations that he needed to do to make this thing work."
26. The first standalone Predator movie with a female lead. Alien vs. Predator (2004) also had a female lead.
27. The predator never uses his voice box to mimic a characters voice back at them.
28. In coming up with a new look, the design team at ADI had to contend with the fact that the startling alien visage of the Predator, in the thirty-plus years since the original premiered, had become a bit too familiar. Speaking to Matt Winston about the creature, Alec said, "That was a scary face that your dad designed, right? That was a terrifying-looking creature, but now we've become comfortable and familiar with it. And there've been a lot of design iterations. So [the challenge was] can we get the feeling back that we had when we first saw that face without necessarily saying this is a brother or sister to one of those creatures, but a cousin? That was one of the things that we really appreciated when Dan said he wanted it to be more of a horror character. We wanted the feeling that we had when we saw the first Predator take off his helmet."
29. One of the weapon designs for the new Predator would be similar to one seen before, the Predator Wire Net. "Those nets have been in some of the Predator movies. And then at some point in the round robin conversation, it was more like, 'well, what if it's more like a grenade?'" said Gillis. "It's a little more unexpected. There was engineering involved and this was a fun one to work on with Justin Goby Fields, because he's a really great designer and he thinks in mechanical terms. So we came up with this little net ball with little lights on it and stuff to make it look cool." When fired, via digital animation, the net unspools from the center while remaining connected to the ball itself. And then it would contract and there's nothing [the victim] can do to stop that contraction. "I love that they made the ball sound like a lawnmower, it really has power to it," said Gillis. "I just laughed out loud at how gleeful and outrageous the execution of that thing was. It was much less elegant than I imagined and therefore much, much better than I imagined."
30. The original Predator script was written by brothers Jim and John Thomas. The Prey credits include the brothers as Executive Producers.
31. Overall, the choice was made not to go with so many "bone necklaces and things, little trophies and tchotchkes hanging off of him, so we took the bone and mated it to the technology," said Alec Gillis.
32. This is the seventh Predator film, counting the two Alien vs. Predator movies.
33. The first Predator film to not have any of Alan Silvestri's musical themes or cues.
34. Director Dan Trachtenberg posted on Instagram on July 30, 2021: "Looking at this old picture of our slate from when we shot 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) and thinking about how sometimes they report on a movie's title, but it's actually just the code name it is shooting under." The photo showed a slate with the name "Valencia," which was the film's working title. Many have interpreted this cryptic message to mean Trachtenberg was saying the new Predator film will not be titled Skull, and that it may only be the working title.
35. With Dane DiLiegro's head inside the neck of the Feral Predator, the ADI team had to come up with strategies to avoid the character looking too long-necked on camera. "There was a little bit of a learning curve, you can't stand upright," said Alec Gillis. DiLiegro had to "go into, we were calling it 'Beast Mode,' so he was throwing his shoulders forward. We had sculpted the shoulders forward to sort of bring the length of the neck down, disguise it with those thinner dreads which goes back to the horror character, kind of almost like a Japanese ghost or something from The Ring (2002) that would help hide the length of that neck. But it was really on Dane to shrug his shoulders forward so that it didn't look misproportioned."
36. First Predator film to be released as a streaming exclusive.
37. The second Predator story to involve the Comanche tribe, the first being May Blood Pave My Way Home.
38. To capture the look and feel of the North American continent with its pristine forests and waterways that existed before extensive colonization, the film was shot in Calgary, in the western Canadian province of Alberta. The crew added atmospheric touches to emphasize the primeval look of the location. "What I love so much about the environment was that Dan had something happening in it almost all the time," said Tom Woodruff, Jr. "There was always some kind of a filter of either snow, or ash in the burnt glade, things that integrated [the Feral Predator] into the environment instead of putting him right up front I thought that was really a brilliant move."
39. The Feral Predator head for Prey was packed with tiny radio controlled servos to manipulate the facial expressions. "We have advantages now that we have smaller servo motors," said Alec Gillis. Each of the two animatronic 'hero' heads had 27 servo motors because there were more points of movement in the mandibles than there had been in previous Predators. And "the mandibles were always visible. Dane could occasionally wear a stunt head, but pretty much [we] were always puppeteering."
40. A major issue the designers faced was pitting a futuristically armed alien against humans that are essentially in the Stone Age as far as their weapons go. 300 years ago, "Comanches had their sophisticated tactics but they were dealing with bows and spears and stuff," said Gillis "So you want to make sure that the Feral Predator's weaponry matches a little more equally to that. At first, the ADI team explored an extremely primitive look for the Feral Predator. "We actually played around with the idea of a caveman Predator and Neanderthal Predator," said Gillis. "But they were a little too far afield and a little too inelegant. So we were able to sort of devolve this Feral Predator and it started with the weapons." "The first weapon I was involved with in designing was the Crossbolt," said Tom Woodruff, Jr. "Very early on I had the [ADI design team] try to make it look a little more primitive, a little bit more tribal, but then as it moved into more of an existing definition of a Predator weapon, some of those little things were left by the wayside. We didn't want it to look like the Feral Predator was on Gilligan's Island and building things out of bamboo and ferns."
41. Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr. are no strangers to the Predator world. Both were working at Stan Winston Studio during the original Predator build and their company Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc. (ADI) would eventually create the practical Predator effects for AVP: Alien vs. Predator, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem, and The Predator. When Alec and Tom first read Prey, they immediately knew that its focus on the alien hunter fighting members of the Comanche tribe in the distant past would be a refreshing departure for the Predator franchise.
42. Because the Feral Predator existed 300 years prior to events in 1987's Predator, the filmmakers and ADI team felt justified that it could look different than the one in the original film and other iterations audiences had seen before. "We moved back towards the body being very [tall], lean and mobile and the face having a little less of a human quality to it," said Gillis. "We looked at potato bugs, Jerusalem crickets, and things like that. Because the mandibles are rather insect-like, we thought, maybe there's a head we can do that looks like it's related. It's an offshoot, but not quite exactly what you've seen from a Predator. So he's sort of like a side variant of the Predators, but he is also from 300 years ago."
43. At 1:17:35 of the movie there is a shot of Elbow Falls, located 22km SW of Bragg Creek, Alberta
44. At the outset, director Dan Trachtenberg gave Alec and Tom a measure of freedom during the design process. "We had a fair amount of wiggle room," said Gillis, "more so than we've ever had before. There's usually an understandable tendency on the part of the studio to want to deliver to the fans what they know and love. And that's okay. If you have multiple Predators, you can always have one that looks like the original guy and then you can play around and make one a little different." In this case, although very respectful of the original Predator design, Trachtenberg "said to us, sort of sheepishly, 'You're not gonna make this look like all the other Predators?'" said Gillis. "What he meant was he had a very specific set of parameters in his mind that he wanted us to work within. He wanted it to look more like a horror character."
45. While the majority of the paintwork was complete by the time Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff, and crew traveled to Alberta for the shoot, final paint touches on the head were executed by the talented Canadian makeup artist and monster maker, Mike Fields, who previously had brought his artistic skills to almost every Canadian shoot ADI had been a part of, along with Prosthetic Makeup Department Head, Maiko 'Mo' Gomyo.
46. To get the ball rolling on the Feral Predator redesign, ADI concept artist Michael Eppinette created a 3D digital sculpture over a scan of suit performer Dane DiLiegro's head. "We worked over the top of [Dane's scan] so we could get it all very accurate," explained Alec Gillis. Director Trachtenberg made it clear that he didn't want a giant head on the Feral Predator. "Dan was very emphatic that he wanted the head to be smaller once unmasked with an elongated, muscular neck," said Gillis. "We worked on how to disguise Dane's head, which was in the neck of the character [which is where] the 3D scanning and design comes in."
47. The practical Feral Predator effects for Prey were created by Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff, Jr. of Academy Award-winning Amalgamated Dynamics, Inc. (Tremors, Starship Troopers, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom).
48. Although the majority of shots of the Feral Predator were achieved via practical effects, the VFX team, led by Ryan Cook, did provide some digital augmentation. "There was a plan that was set in pre-production and it was executed pretty much exactly," said Alec Gillis. "We do see touches on the face at times, like on a big roar, there's a little shake inside the mouth. That is something that we just can't do. There's also some hand replacement when there's an extreme closeup [of the Feral Predator] feeling the ash in his hand and it's kinda turning to dust. There's a lot of digital work in that. One of the tells is that all the points of movement of the finger are moving. When we do a finger cup with an extension, we lose the last joint. People notice that. So that was always a plan, we're gonna do a digital hand."
49. Prey premiered at the San Diego Comic-Con on July 21, 2022, and was released by 20th Century Studios as a Hulu original film in the United States and on Disney+ Star internationally on August 5.
50. The flintlock pistol dated 1715 with the name Raphael Adolini engraved on it is the same one that was given to Lieutenant Mike Harrigan at the end of Predator 2 (1990) by an elder Predator.
51. Before confronting Taabe and Naru, the Predator cloaks itself turning invisible. Taabe yells something in exasperation which is not translated in the regular/english version. But the Comanche version reveals that he actually yells "Cheater!" for not fighting in the open.
52. Taabe (Dakota Beavers) says about the Predator after wounding it: "If it bleeds... we can kill it." It pays tribute to the first Predator (1987), where those same words were said by Alan "Dutch" Schaefer (Arnold Schwarzenegger).
53. Instead of a Post-Credit scene there is an animated end-title sequence which alludes to the next chapter in the story. This credit sequence was made by top award-winning Native American artists in hide art (painting in animal hides) to be more period accurate.
54. An early script idea was that this is supposed to be the first time a Predator had ever come to Earth. This original outline can still be seen when the Predator kills random animals of all sizes for its trophies (and not just humans) in a non-jungle/non-humid climate. It also explains why the Comanche were somewhat capable of fighting off the Predator in hand-to-hand combat as it easily bled from the cuts and scratches of primitive rock-tipped spears and arrows. This is because the Predator was not yet knowledgeable about Earth's atmosphere and was weaker from not being protected against it: its mask didn't fully cover its mouth to provide a breathing element that's different from Earth's oxygen (as seen in Predator parts 1 and 2), and it wore no armor while it hunted in the cold Great White North.
55. WILHELM SCREAM: when the Predator throws one of the Comanche hunters behind the large tree log.
56. The first Predator movie where the Predator does not use its trademark shoulder-mounted plasma cannon.
57. When Taabe is wounded by the Predator, he is stabbed from the back. Taabe is raised in the air, a visual image of the "Sundance ritual". Taabe could sense this was the end to his "Great Red Road" - life, so he made the sacrifice for his sister, family and tribe.
58. When Naru gives the trapper the "orange tutsia" flower, it lowers his body temperature, making it hard for the Predator's infrared-based vision to perceive him. Seeing this, Naru says "it can't see him." This echoes the first Predator film, when the Predator can't see Schwarzenegger mud-covered character (Alan "Dutch" Schaefer), who says "it can't see me."
59. The Predator gets its arm cut off with its own weapon like in Predator 2 (1990).
60. The story of how the Elder Predator (Greyback) obtained the 18th century pistol (which he gifted to Mike Harrigan after defeating City Hunter) that reads "Raphael Andolini 1715" would later be a short story from Dark Horse comics titled Predator: 1718. In it, Raphael Andolini was a pirate on the Guinea Coast who later had to battle his mutinous crew over gold. Sometime later, Greyback intervened and helped Andolini defeat his former crew. The Prey movie was perhaps partly based on the graphic short story Predator: 1718, which was written decades before. The movie version of Raphael Andolini is a French trapper, not a pirate like in the comic.
61. Possible Easter egg, the cigar is a nod to Arnold in the original.
62. the French trappers say "I've got a bad feeling about this", and "it's a trap". French Star Wars Easter eggs.

Genre

Action,Adventure,Drama

Cast

as Naru

as Taabe

as Predator

as Wasape

as Aruka

as Chief Kehetu

as Sumu (Chief Wife)

as Raphael

as Big Beard

as Waxed Mustache

as Itsee

as Puhi