New Predator film plans February start in Vancouver

Writer and director Shane Black will helm the new movie – currently called The Predator – a full 30 years after his small acting role in John McTiernan’s original 1987 film that built on Arnold Schwarzenegger’s status as an action star.

“Right now we’re looking at probably beginning to mid-February [for filming],” Black told film site Collider. “I’m heading up to Vancouver in a week or two to go into serious pre-production, so we’re on the cusp.”

The original Predator movie doubled Mexico for the jungles of Central America. A 1990 sequel – made without Schwarzenegger – filmed in Los Angeles for a story set in a near-future California, and was shot in the years before tax credit issues made LA less favourable for big-budget productions.

The most recent movie in the franchise was the 2010 film Predators, which returned the story to a jungle setting but this time shot its exteriors in Hawaii, an easy and film-friendly location.

Vancouver is not a surprise for the new film as the city is one of Canada’s top production hubs and a regular choice for the Hollywood studios owing to its flexible locations, generous filming incentives and proximity to Los Angeles.

The city’s popularity means that studio resources are in fact scarce. More adapted filming facilities are being opened locally, one of the most recent being Skydance Studios that will soon host the Netflix series Altered Carbon.

For more on filming in British Columbia see our production guide.

Image: 20th Century Fox