Now that the dust has settled on Prey, the latest entry in the Predator franchise, we’re here to bring you more about the production thanks to director Dan Trachtenberg and star Amber Midthunder.
We were involved in a foreign media roundtable with the pair, as well as executive producer Jhane Myers.
At the roundtable we only got to ask one question for the trio to answer so, starting with Trachtenberg, we wanted to know about the practicality of the Predator in this movie and the overall use of CGI throughout.
Another journalist at the roundtable had previously asked the director what inspirations went into Prey, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story was mentioned for its ability to capture the 70s aesthetic of A New Hope while still bringing with it the modern flare and sensibilities that a contemporary audience has come to expect.
The Predator suit itself has recently done the rounds on social media with Trachtenberg himself retweeting this behind the scenes picture of the monster looking particularly forlorn.
“Everyone calls me The Predator. My name is Albert.” pic.twitter.com/9a9E4J4Eog
— Batmantaur (@JaimsVanDerBeek) August 15, 2022
So how was this accomplished? Trachtenberg tells us of the effects house behind it – Amalgamated Dynamics (ADI) – as well as the actor inside, Dane DiLiegro.
“From a suit perspective it’s ADI who has done the suit for some previous Predator films and they continue to iterate. We try to make it as gripped to the body as possible so there wouldn’t be any bulk we had lovely concept design for it so we could make sure that we were able to fully articulate that design so that, instead of having a really bulky head, we could animatronics and a person’s face inside,” Trachtenberg says.
“For this movie we developed this system to put the head on top of the performer – in this case Dane – so Dane was looking out through some eye holes in the neck. Whenever the Predator needed to look forward Dane actually had to look down into the ground so he was performing mostly blind. Then we also introduced some of the Alien goop that we usually see with the Xenomorph. We wanted to include that slime so that the Predator felt that much more ferocious.”
Those who have watched the movie already will attest to the great glowing effect of the “Alien goop”, something the director recommends experiencing with HDR.
As we mentioned in our launch review of Prey, this version of the Predator looks rather different to the other incarnations we’ve seen in previous movies.
We called this look a mix of Mayan and Aztec aesthetics and, while Trachtenberg didn’t use this terminology, he did comment on the fact that this Predator is meant to be more primal and brutal, mirrored by its use of melee weapons and older technology. This, again, was achieved with a mix of practical and CGI effects.
“We pretty much did all the weapons which were built practically and then taken over into visual effects where need be. Sometimes the hands got augmented in visual effects in very specific shots, sometimes they weren’t. It’s a mishmash that, hopefully, doesn’t give away where it’s virtual and where it’s practical because sometimes you’d think we would want to take over and make something CG but it’s endearing to still be the practical suit for that specific shot. Then, sometimes, it’s the subtlest of details where your eye would never go to that we would do a CG enhancement of to make it feel as real as we possibly could,” he tells us.
You can see DiLiegro in the full suit below. For more behind the scenes pictures of that suit we recommend this feature including input from ADI team members and DiLiegro himself.
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In another section of the roundtable, Midthunder revealed to us that she didn’t know that Prey would be a Predator movie until relatively close to shooting.
We asked what her relationship was with this franchise so far before playing such a major role in it.
“Of course I was always aware of Predator and Alien just as entities that exist. I think I was more familiar with Predators specifically in a pop culture way. I feel like there’s famous lines and references that get used in other movies and it permeates mainstream pop culture so after I found out what [this movie was] I went back and watched all the Predator movies so it was a fun and enjoyable experience to watch and pick out and realise all the things I already knew, but didn’t specifically know came from Predator,” the actress says.
Without spoiling anything, those who have already seen the movie will know that there are references aplenty to the other films including a few lines ripped directly from those past entries.
To see that for yourself you will, of course, need to watch the movie and Prey is streaming right now, but where you can watch it depends on where you live.
If you’re in a country or territory with access to Hulu, that’s where you’ll need to go. For places without Hulu, like here in South Africa, Disney+ is instead the platform hosting the latest Predator movie.
