Happy Sad Confused - PREDATOR: BADLANDS Spoiler Special (w/Dan Trachtenberg)

Episode Date: November 10, 2025

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Prepare your ears, humans. Happy, sad, confused begins. Hey, guys, it's Josh. Welcome to another edition of Happy, Sad, Confuse. Today, it's a spoiler special for Predator Badlands with the director Dan Tractonburg. Hey, guys, thanks as always for joining me on the podcast. If you're watching this, you can see I'm in a little bit of a different environment right now. I'm in Los Angeles.

I was out here taping a few really exciting things in an upcoming podcast, a new series, and hosting the red carpet for Stranger Things, season five, which is epic, huge. Today's episode, though, most importantly, is all about Predator, and specifically Predator Badlands, which is now out in theaters. This movie is so good. You're going to hear me gushed a lot, so I apologize in advance. But Dan Tractonburg, Ten Clover Field Lane, Prey, Predator of Killer of Killers, he knows his stuff.

This is a guy I've known for a while. who we've been talking for a while and we kind of run into each other things and you know we have mutuals he's never done the podcast we are you're going to experience a little bit of a mutual admiration society again apologies dan is very kind a devoted fan of happy second views i'm a devoted fan of his so um if you can't stand 45 minutes of men gushing about each other's work you're listening or watching the wrong podcast um i saw this movie recently And as I said to Dan, like, to be honest, like, I'm, like, running around. I have no room in the schedule.

And I'm like, I have to, it's time. I have to do Dan. This movie's so good. So this was recorded in this crappy hotel room at 6 a.m. Hopefully, I was semi-coherent for catching up with Dan. Luckily, he's very articulate, knows his stuff, and had a lot to say. And to unload some spoiler stuff. So, like I said, this is best experienced.

I mean, don't watch or listen to this until you've seen Predator. bad lands because what are you doing to yourself experience the movie enjoy it um but if you have seen it this is for you um we dissect a lot of cool moments easter eggs connections to other films um it's no secret that this has linkage to the alien franchise um but take away all those bells and whistles this is just a rock and great action adventure sci-fi movie so you guys are in for a treat if you haven't seen it yet and if you have you know what i'm talking about um Other things to mention really quickly, I'll just tease some other things going on. Patreon.com slash happy, say I'm confused.

All the info, early access, discount codes, including upcoming events. I've got one next week in New York. Is it next week? Actually, I think by the time you listen to this, it's going to be this week. Yeah, I think so. November 18th, it's coming up soon. Brendan Fraser, talking rental family, but his entire career. He's never done the podcast.

I'm so excited. Brendan, a living legend. So we're going to screen the movie at 92Y, then I'm going to have a big career chat with him. There's a lot of great episodes in the can. It's a good time for movies right now. I love the fall. It's great. Stranger Things, a really cool podcast I just recorded.

I'll say it because I posted the photo. Winona Ryder's back. Of course she's back. You guys know I'm obsessed with Winona. She's the best. Fourth time on the podcast. That's coming up soon. Maybe some other Stranger Things podcast, too.

I will just tease. Nothing firmed up, but we've been talking about some other people. So we're going to cover this last season in a big way, I think. I'd happy, say I confused. I'm very excited for everything to come on the pod the last couple months of the year because we're, yeah, we got some cool stuff cooking. So stay tuned. I'm going to let you guys enjoy this now.

Like I said, Dan Tractonberg, you know him, you love them, 10 Cloverfield Lane, prey, killer of killers, and now Predator Badlands. this guy knows his stuff and I think this conversation started in a very casual way so it's going to feel a little organic but that's all good here's me catching up with director Dan Tractenberg

enjoy we're doing it oh my gosh can't believe it we couldn't do another 10 years of dancing around each other hi Dan I'm in my home in Philadelphia

my childhood home and and tucked away in a room, borrowing a computer and all that stuff. So sorry for all the crazy. No, I get it. You know how to read. You have books behind you. Dude.

This doesn't even, we're not even going to talk about my mom's books. This is a crazy thing. It's good to see you. Yeah. I am, I only half gushed when we saw each other a comicant. I'm ready to full, full gush. Okay. I want like 10%.

Don't do too much. I mean, I'll take a little bit. And luckily, dude, I'm doing, I mean, not to say, like, I always want to do this, but like, I'm doing this at 6 a.m. after I hosted The Stranger Things premiere last night in L.A. Oh, my gosh. I love this movie. And I know we wanted to do this for a while, but, like, I saw the movie. I'm like, okay, we're going to just, we have to make this happen because the movie's so fucking good, man.

I mean, congratulations. Thank you. Thank you in so many ways. But I'm a, I'm a long time fan, and I've always been. um so curious about your story and and because i'm here i was thinking about i feel like and i maybe i haven't listened to every episode so i don't know if more has been told but you remember i remember um did one episode i i feel like it may have been from your childhood home with your brother um that was a rare thing um and i've always just found that um

you i think when i first start listening to you i was like why is he so it sounds like he works in the business it doesn't sound like um you're super objective and and come from a place of of journalism as much as like having been inside it which may just be that you're that insightful um or um from stuff with your brother i do not know um but and you also which I know that you are aware of, but there's this crazy thing that any time I see a headline of an interesting story,

it's always from you. It's like always from you. To an obnoxious level. No, I appreciate. That's very sweet. It's really weird that, and you have a very disarming way about you, and so the chats feel more like friends catching up

than they do. feel investigatory so um um you get people are comfortable and they and they share things that maybe they wouldn't when we're all so prepared to like sell a movie or tv show or whatever it is um but the only time i ever heard you be nervous do you know the one time that you feel like you were the most nervous no i i let's see if it because you're normally very much not um but uh indiana jones harrison ford yeah yeah yeah and he used to do a thing thing where people grab out of a hat. Yeah.

Indiana's hat. Yeah. Indiana Jones hat. Yeah. That's amazing. I was nervous. That was a junket and that was like a shorter thing. And yeah, he's Harrison Ford.

Yeah, it's a shorter thing. You don't have time to like nestle. And he's famously just like so dry and so, I mean, he's great. But I actually love the way that interview came out. But you're right. Like, I walked into that room like, okay, how do I get something? I heard a difference in in you that is not like the way you normally are. But what is your, Dan, we're going to, okay, you got two more minutes and then we're going.

Okay. Just give me a little bit and then we can talk. But, but what, how, how did you gain the superpower? What, what was the, what formed this? I, I, I did my 10,000 hours, to be honest. I failed before I, like, got comfortable. Like, I was like, you know, I'm, you know, we probably share a similar early background. I was, you know, I went to, like, sci-fi conventions. I was like a crazy pop culture nerd. with my older brother and like did college radio and did like anonymous interviews for like years and years and years so by the time like I didn't start to do on camera until I was 30 so I think there was that and I don't know like if if I when I self-analyze I do think my I think you've analyzed it well like my superpower if there is one is like I I do talk to everybody the same way like I I'm I'm able to shut out 99% of the time outside of Harrison Ford right the part of my brain that's like, why am I talking to my childhood crush Winona Ryder right now?

Like, this does not compute. Right. And I have so much love. This is not, I'm not faking it. You know, I love this shit. And like, hopefully that comes through. So, yeah, I don't know how to teach. A thousand percent.

I don't know how to teach a course of what I do. Were you like an intern at MTV and then a, my, my quick, my quick background is I was, so college radio. I worked for Charlie Rose right out of school. school. Remember the Charlie Rose show? I was a producer for four years. And that guy, say what you will about him, he did exhaustive in-depth interviews. So I learned how to prep and research and go hardcore into it. And like I said, lived kind of a life before I started to actually do this. I see. I see. Okay. That's okay. But they're not here for me, Dan. Look, we know. I think we are a little bit. I think we are. But go ahead. Okay. So this is, so some further context for the

folks out there. It's um, we're taking this on opening day for predator badlands. Um, and this is a really, really great movie, great predator movie, great, like, adventure sci-fi movie. Um, and Dan and I, as you can tell guys, if you're listening or watching, we know each other to a degree because we've kind of travel in the same spaces, but we've never done this deep dive. And I, and I, and I want to do this, hopefully talk a little spoilers. If that's okay with you, we're going to run this after? I'm thrilled to. I'm thrilled to. I'm like, oh my gosh, you talk about the movie as the movie is.

Okay. It's great. Okay. So first a little context, some of the basics that you have been talking about a little bit. Germ of the idea for Predator Badlands. Is it about, I heard you talk about this, but like there is that funny thing when you start to think about for the predator in these movies. It's like it's the most

amazing species that always somehow gets its ass kick. So it's time. It's time. It's time. right it's time um and the it's just the the next thought there is like okay so let's make a part of movie where he wins um but that a slasher movie where the bad guy wins in the end is it is it was a fun thing although kind of happens a lot in slasher movies anyway there's always the like one extra shot of you know the the the the coda is usually and the slasher

Absolutely. So that didn't excite me and did not make for, maybe maybe I've made for another, I could figure out another cool Predator movie, but not for an actual great movie, all encompassing films. So thought a little bit harder and got to a place where it was like maybe the Predator is on the same journey that normally the human is on. And that leads to this great place. place where that's not just cool for a predator movie that's cool for a sci-fi movie we we have

how many movies have we seen where we fall in love with the creature sidekicks um and the you know and even the villains even the monsters in the movie um and for the first time now it's it's it's not uh it's not it's not it's not even it's a little there's quite a bit of t two influence in this in this movie but even but even t too it's john connor's movie and Arnold's the sidekick. So really going even further. And of all the creatures, like, it

feels a little bit more accessible when you think about Chubacca doing it, but the ugly, the like famously ugly motherfucker and like that's who we're hitching you to. And yes, we're going to make you feel things for that and still let it be

ferocious and vicious and brutal. So that was the like call to action of like holy crap this could be a really cool movie get no frills delivered shop the same in store prices online and enjoy unlimited delivery with pc express pass get your first year for 250 a month learn more at pcexpress.ca goodbye kyle did the sound of those words call to you like Pavlov's dog, then you might enjoy our podcast Turtle Time. Every week you can join me, Riley Hamilton, and my co-host, Amy Scarletta, as we cover the most

pressing Bravo news and dig into the new episodes to answer important questions like, who the hell is Adrian Maloof in this world? Listen to Turtle Time on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, new episodes every Wednesday and Friday. And you set it up in such a great way. The pre-credit sequence, like, Hadme, it's such a good, and you immediately feel for, for deck, and you realize that this is, as you watch the film further, there's this great symmetry. It's a film about siblings, the film about, you know, the outcast sibling.

Talk a little bit about that first opening sequence, because that, that, like, if you can't, If you don't accomplish that, first, it's a kick-ass, dramatic, emotional sequence, but it also puts you on deck's side. It makes you immediately feel for the first time for The Predator. The North Star, for me, for openings, is not Raiders. I knew you were thinking it. The North Star Openings for me are two JJ movies. Oh, Star Trek, of course.

What's that? Star Trek has to be one of them, yeah, all time. I mean, how, how, what other opening are you crying, like, bawling, like Marley and me, end of movie typical tears in the first five minutes of a movie, you know? Let's call them Jim, Jim, and the Giacino score kicks in. Yeah. I mean, it kills me every time. It's gone, gone. Um, and Super 8 has, it's opens on two shots back to back.

I've always wanted to get them framed and put on my office wall that is. like someone changing a sign that says we haven't had an accident in so many days and it's being changed to zero and the very next shot is a lone house in a suburb and a kid on a swing set and the door opens with a father coming it's like it's like I know everything I need to know in two images they don't even need to have been moving though they are but like two images so that's always the holy grail every time but but this time especially like getting Getting people on the side of the quote unquote monster was really thinking about it's got to happen right away. There's also like hitman movie logic, gangster movie logic of and from dust till dawn a little bit too of like you're with the bad guys because they're up against something even worse than them, you know.

and that in this movie had to be emotional and physical. And did you hit upon that kind of linkage between, you know, Thea and her sister, as it were, Deck and his brother pretty early on. I go, this is a thematic linkage that's going to work. Yeah, characters that are outcasts that are seen as broken, that are trying to break a sense. I love, one of my favorite movies is Magnolia, and there's a line of Magnolia that says, maybe don't the past, but the past ain't done with you.

I think that is the only thematic in movies that needs to be investigated. If we have that in stories, we have enough to, like, live as a culture. So I'm always interested in characters breaking cycles and dealing with the burden of where they've come from. And these are two characters that are trying to be more than where they came from. or eventually, eventually trying to be more than where they came from, yeah. I don't know about you, Dan, but having seen all these movies, all these years, I think it's time to stop trusting Waylon Mutani. I don't know if they're a reputable organization.

Someone can investigate them. I concur. I concur. And such is tends to be the case in life with our many corporations that we know. sometimes their best interest is not in the public and yet we still endure and receive you know and utilize the stuff from the corporations so so l's characters follows in a long line i mean i've always been a sucker i'm sure you have for you know you know lansan rickson all these sense like these characters are like some of my favorites in the alien movies and these two are

fantastic um you talked about this a little bit but let's talk a little bit about connecting wailen Newtani alien into this in the way that you did just happened organically. It's not like a corporate mandate like, hey, want to think about alien in here? Like, give me a sense. The opposite. No, none of this movie, none of this movie was the corporate. No one was like, hey, dude, next up, make one with like very little actors that'll help us sell the movie, you know, like, and a monster that, you know, like no one, everyone

who likes predator, you know, has never really asked for this kind of, you know, like, um, None of this is a, none of this, it's, you know, because there's obviously, there's always a thing from anything that comes from Disney, where people say Disneyification of something or whatever it is. Or, oh, look at Disney, they're doing this. Let me tell you, they did not ask, this is all, if you don't, if you're not cool with the movie, it's this guy's fault, I assure you. And, and yeah, no, I really was just thinking about if, as soon as I put a human in the movie. then it's then it becomes t-2 which is great but that exists you know it's going to become um we we as the creators of it and also at the end the audience will just sort of more attached to the human um than the monster so that was sort of a rule from from the start as I was thinking

about like okay no humans and the next thought was like monster and robot there's something but something sort of Miyazaki feeling about that or um and uh And then the next thought was like, holy crap, wait a second. It's sitting here. It's right there. It's right there. It's right there. Yeah.

Waylon you tell me. So is there any permutation of this where you lean even more in, where they're hunting the xenomorph, where there's a little bit even more of a overt alien overlap? I just think this is where I'm like, I'm like, this is how Josh gets it. This is how he does it. I don't know what you're talking about. No, like, I forget the line from Superman, but, but like, it's more punk rock to me that there is no xenomorph in this movie. And the longer we can go, but who know, you know, whatever, but it's just really cool. This is a, there's probably his precedent that someone will, will point out.

But it's typically when you have two things from different IP or franchise or whatever coming together, it's the things. It's the, it's the, it's the, it's the, it's the action figures, you know, and it's just so cool to me that we've just taken an element. We can do that. We can do that. We can just take this one element. And that's fusing to predator and we'll let this cook and whatever, you know, come blossoms from there will be awesome. And it would be great. I concur it would be really cool.

And people have to fall in love with one movie at a time, obviously. But it would be great if eventually there's a crossover, it's not like, I mean, a heavier crossover with Zenos. It's not a marketing gimmick. It's not like the entire point of the movie is the crossover. It'd be great if it came from the narrative of either that we would be building. on or um that's just genuinely awesome for that movie you know so speaking of crossover elements i mean one moment you know she emerges in something akin to the power loader of aliens is that another

iteration essentially of the aliens power loader thousand percent that is meant that is weak that is referred to us as the super power loader um yeah no that was every intention of being and i had to tell you yeah it was it was actually um there was a challenge there because the temptation was you want to see the petter up against something really gnarly and technological um and you want to indulge in all the mech stuff that you you possibly could um but a mr Mr. Jim Cameron really indulged in that an avatar

growing up what she deserves to as he as he you know as he born and bred it in so many ways but also like the thing that makes it distinct what was so cool in aliens was that you saw it

in the beginning as a piece of utility equipment And that's what it defines Wayland, New Town. I always try as hard as I can a mantra throughout developing and production and the whole way across. It's like what can happen in only this movie. Because there's tons of movies. A mech can be in Avatar, can be in Pacific. Lots of movies can have a mech fighting something.

But only in this movie with Way of New Time. can it be an ancestor of the power like can it be a power loader thing and so um was challenging to devise it around a piece of that equipment that made sense as made for utility um could then be weaponized and um and all that yeah well and i think what you tow the one very well and like i don't want to crap on another movie because i actually loved what fete did i loved his last alien movie i think he did a great job i think some people had a quibble i'm not going to put you on the spot but like the the quoting of the line to get away from her you bitch is like one one step too much for me like we don't need like you know to like underline it and you don't underline the

powder litter for those that remember aliens it's like oh that i see the connection and i even had to clarify it with you and um that i think less is more in something so funny i actually thought it would be obvious but it hasn't i thought as soon as we put a little glimpse in the trail i'm like oh my god they're all gonna like say and the people weren't saying it admittedly our trip we kept it pretty dark in the trailers but but even now um yeah the line stuff is is just always hard we we we had a line and pray um and uh and i and i think that went over okay i the trick is like it it's a line that would be said anyway you know if like in that moment it would be necessary to say that, as opposed to this is definitely here for a moment.

And we avoided, and also because the temptation, all day, every day on set, everyone is pitching. Wouldn't it be fun if, you know, on prey, everyone was like, let's name a horse chopper, you know, like, you know, like the fur trappers who'd be like, get through chopping her or something, you know, like. it's fun to joke around and and of course the temptation is is right in front of us i will say we tried very hard um ultimately there's a little bit of wiggle in the end but the the callusk um the creature that cannot be killed does not bleed like visually like you like there's there's a little bit of when it's when it's saws spinning. Yeah. That's just flesh that's being spent around.

You know, you see it reconstruct itself and there's no, there's no blood, um, dripping whenever it reconforms and all that stuff. Just so we had our internal kind of like, it's fine. It's not bleeding. So you can't kill it. Do you guys hear that? Oh, that's our podcast, Ruin brought to you by me, your host, trepid horror movie freak Halley Kiefer and me your resident

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wherever you get your podcasts. Let me ask you this. The ending. Always the way you wanted to end it. Mom coming. What were the permutations? What were you thinking about? I would say the ending went through

growth, a lot of growth. The original Coda, the same kind of stuff happened, but it was much more brief. It was much more Kurosawa. It was actually a lot like the ending of the samurai, the sword chapter in Killer of Killers. It was a standoff. They charged each other, deck and father,

and then you saw green blood dripping you don't know you didn't know who it was and we boom up and reveal his gauntlets got blood on it and dad has been sliced and and then big bud comes over and chomps the head and that was it um cut to black yeah that's a black in in so many ways um and the first time we tested it uh they were like we want more uh you know like more dad come on dad's so badass we we want more we want more um so that that's that's what evolved we really added quite at that whole end fight the brothers they're the other guards and um and so much more with dad uh and then also that mother ending and i and i really can't place um when that first i think i was thinking about the end of um of killer killers and and the spaceship going off into the sunset

just like that like that apocalypse nowy thing and um and like inverting that and having something you know what it is it's like there's just something to me and cloverfield ain't ended in this way too of like you've forged a character through the fires of one movie um uh and the idea of like it's not over yet for them but but now they are ready for it in a new way yeah i've always loved the surge of that um and ready for the next adventure whatever ready for the next thing yeah get ready for whatever's worse out there and then the thought of oh i know what could be worse than than dad you know so how how fully fleshed out is what to do with mom i don't have we ever seen on screen a female predator never seen on screen a female predator crazy yeah again you're finding all the area the area

is like, oh, wait, we've never explored that aspect. So what's, there must be some, you have some ideas to explore that aspect of who? Yeah, there's thoughts, there's thoughts. And certainly I'd want to make sure that it wasn't, there's a lot of like fan art of what, and certainly the comics have had. And I'd certainly want to make sure it feels unique and special

and like fits in with the culture of the Acha as we've been realizing it. um i will say to you um that that was one of the things um in the end this last line that i suddenly got um really really nervous about um because i i i didn't want people to be like wait mom from the mother from way the new time or like have any computer like i got scared like it'll like it's it'd be fine if you that moment happened in the middle of the movie but it's that's the like the last thought of the movie um and we constructed this the thing of going to title and then back to that um so that you the last thought is like he's deck of the yautja

and then there's so that there's even though it's splitting hairs but there's still um and i that's what i emailed jim cameron about um and uh what was the question or or thought like he i initially sent him the sent him the cut um and he he he he he said him the cut um and he he he He wrote a lovely response back. I've said this, just, you know, to tell, but, but, but, but he, to say the full thing and, you know, um, but he, he loved, he loved pray, um, which is mind blowing, um, absolutely like, that's all I, you know, it's like, no one has to like pray, but if he likes it, I'm fine, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, a million percent. Um, um, and, and, and so when we were, we were shooting New Zealand, he had, he had, he had. me come down to we were in Auckland he's obviously he's in Wellington arranged by the great Steve Asbell who runs 20th and isn't you know is collaborating with both of us Jim had me visit

the set of Avatar such as it is and hang on his edit bay for like hours it was it was unreal and annoyingly I remember so little because obviously the whole time I'm like like, I can't lose that. I can't lose that happening. And I'm like not retaining all that I want to retain from it. Um, but, uh, we then were reconvening to, to get some dinner. Um, and when I, I was, when he came in, uh, after being let off, uh, he sat down. I, I told in the end of bay, I told him like everything that I was worried about with the movie. I'm doing this whole new process where we're having someone in suit, but we are doing some visual effects. with the face and he hadn't been done and all that and he sat down um and he said i was thinking

about what you're doing and think it's gonna work um and that was like oh you know took that blew me back to ockland you know that that that um encouragement um and it was exactly what i needed to hear The funny thing is I sent him the cut a couple months ago. So it was mostly there, but still not quite all the way there. And he wrote a lovely, at length, thoughts about the film and said, I have to be honest, when I first heard about what you were doing, I did not think it was going to work. but now that I've seen it holy crap you really pulled it up you know um and uh you can retire on that one I can retire and and I really I really think that um he he knows what someone in my shoes needs to hear to get over each hurdle at different stages but so I responded to him because he was

so he was just so like lovely and aware where we are in the process you can't like give notes on um the very basis of what you're doing um and I but I said the ending with the mother like how did that land for you I could also play it this way or that way and and he wrote a huge response of of just how delicious it is as a final moment and and do not back away from it and stick to it so this is a good guy to have us a consultant going forward keep this James Cameron in your life yeah um so you know we've talked about this you've talked with others like you've set up all these different threads thanks to pray killer of killers this one like you can go in a thousand different directions i know you have sounds like one idea you came up with three ideas one became kill for killers one became this sounds like there's one that's like really primed um how far along is that is that in story in script yet where are we i would say that's in story um okay i it's in story it's it's waiting to be furthered and we'll see how we how we do um today but but just like kill comes about you know like there's quite a number of things that like we

could do and there's things that i would love to do not in in in course land but um uh you know it's it's crazy how malleable um this franchise has turned out to be but i i do think that was um that that that isn't the case for for for others and and i think that has something to do with the the crazy genre combination that was the original movie that right from the jump the thing that we loved about it was that it was so many things in one and it just so happens that the predator as a character carries with it so much thematic weight that some other monsters don't necessarily have until the right film maker comes along where they resonate with them in a specific way. Well, the cool thing is, like, you didn't rush to kind of like the obvious. As you said,

you've kind of been setting all this up and they've all worked so far. You're three for three in these films. And hopefully if this, you know, this continues. And you've talked to Arnold. We know you've been talking to Arnold. You've said this. My question is, like, I guess, how far long is that permutation of getting Arnold back into the mix. And also, like, you know, in your post-credit, in your animation sequence there, his character is younger.

Are you de-aging Arnold in whatever you might use him for in the future? There's so, there's an exciting amount of things that we could do with Arnold, with Danny, with Nadu from, you know,

like that, what that, the, you know, that movie was the working title for it or our code name for it was warehouse um and uh with that conceit it really allows for us to tell any kind of story we want in animation in live action um how they ended up to be in that warehouse where they go directly after where they could be um many many years from then so uh yeah Does Arnold have ideas?

Has he been pitching you? Here's what I think. He didn't have any specific ideas, but he was very attracted to filmmakers and, like, interested in working. We talked about a lot of things over the course of his career and like people with vision. and um and um and and has a real fondness for this movie um and uh and loves the idea of their of their being more again in a better way than he felt that things were were going way back in the 80s 90s era well i'm sure you know we grew up around the same time arnold is so meaningful and like when he put himself in the hands of people like

McTiernan or Verhoeven or Cameron like that I mean yes like the other stuff was fine but like if you use him as the right tool he's as good as they come yes I think he's become quite aware of that right right it's time like you know in this time left let's work let's like work with some cool filmmakers so I hope that I hope that pans out man I mean you know obviously you know a lot of folks first came aware of you, thanks to Coverfield Lane. And I mean, I would imagine you've probably taken every meeting, I would imagine, because you work in genre and you clearly have the stuff, you've done, you must have, you've done the Feige meeting, you've met with James Gunn, you've met with Star Wars.

Have you, you've met with all of these people. You have to have, yes? Joshua, Joshua. What? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Over the years, so many, yeah, absolutely, I like so many filmmakers of my generation younger, who do, who have made a movie that strikes a chord, have definitely met. By the way, I will say I met with a producer named Jeremy, Jeremy Lacham at Marvel and Kevin, because of Jeremy,

years ago to meet for Guardians of the Galaxy before James Gunn based off of my short film portal and there was like some YouTube whatever like that they were like

that's that creative you know like let's find someone interesting and cool I did not get the job obviously but and right and rightfully so but but still so so awesome i remember i met them on the day that um they had just i i i hope i'm remembering this right but i think they had just shown adventures to like

people on a spaceship it sounds about it was a nasa they like they like screened avengers for for people on the space station um and i nerded out with kevin foggy about disneyland and um And I will, I will say, yeah, what, because it was, it was, they had a screenplay for it, but what, what James Gunn brought to that was so him and so, um, not exactly what that movie would have been had they just filmed this, which they never would have and, you know, would, but, but, but James really brought everything, um, to that, to that, to the, to, to, that movie um so it's a long career i'm sure there will be other sandboxes you will play and at some point we'll just see what at the right time the right one that fits because you really i mean i was texting honestly after i saw this with some folks had seen him like give dan whatever he like you you can you could do a kick-ass star wars if george miller wants to give me i i trust you you could do you can work in all these genres because you

You know story, you know sci-fi, you know, I don't know, you're charting your own path, but you know the bones of what makes these things work now. I appreciate you saying, but also I always have reverberating in me that like famed conversation on the beach in Hawaii between Spielberg and Lucas, where Spielberg was lamenting that they weren't letting him do James Bond and Lucas was like don't worry about like I got something else for you Indiana Jones like make your own thing and so even though predator is not my original thought but what I'm doing with it I get to really express myself as I as I want to be and and that may not be the case when I'm playing with other I got a lot's action

figures, you know. So on the second go-around, I've only seen the film once, what should I and other folks look out for in watching Predator Badlands, Easter eggs, moments, callbacks, things you're proud of? There, I will say, okay, I'll say a few things for you.

There's a, there's NADO is in the movie. The backbiter, the creature from the end of Killer of Killers, is right after you see Nadu in the movie there is an audible

allusion that dates back to the original alien in this latter half of the of the film there's a line one of the key lines of the movie

syncs up with a key line from from prey um there was something else that i realized not many people are picking up on this um then i'm i'm drawing a blank you're good you're good okay great no don't worry about don't we will talk again it will come to you so so so it's opening day are you going to sneak into a theater is there a tradition for you when when movies of yours have come out um it's not a tradition. I'm going to be flying home. I mean, probably didn't get the shot. So you get to experience this in the theater. Thank

goodness. Yeah, that's true. That's true. The although by the way, I will say when Cloverfield Lane came out, there was a screening in New York. It was premiered in New York, but there was a screening right before the premiere that

Tamar had me come in intro, and I passed you. And I Josh, I was this here. Um, so, uh, the, uh, yeah, yeah, no, I, I might, um, I might lurk outside to hear chatter outside. I will, I will, okay, I, I, I, I've been wondering if I should ever save this out loud, but the first test screening, um, I feel like it's safe to say because now, like, the reviews for the

movie are good. so it's like we you know we did we did all right um but the first test screening um i had to like run i had to go the bathroom right away oh no after um and i was in the bathroom no and and two guys walk in and they were like what the fuck was that that piece what are they you know and i was like i can't believe this is the first and and and and but people like were reacting to it and laughing and then I'm like I'm like I think I was like all right I think this is all right I feel I feel safe now and I go about and like the very first words I hear um it was was it was it James Cameron and really Scott talking to each other yeah exactly what the fuck is this kid doing with our shit

ruined our toys yeah um so that really shattered me and um and ironically the next time we to be previewed, I had to go the bathroom again, but, you know, whatever. I'm of age. And I walked out, and everyone was looking at me like, did you hear anything? And I was like, we're good. So,

we're going on right now. Those were the two anomalies. I'm sorry you had to go through that, but the good news is people are loving it. The movie kicks ass, honestly. And thank you, man. The gushing was too much, but I appreciate you.

Everything you said is very sweet. And right back at you, as you know, I'm such a fan of everything you've done. And just as a fan of Predator, of Alien, of just great adventure films, this one checked all the boxes for me. I'm excited to see it again. Happy Opening Day. Dan Tractenberg, finally, on Happy Second Fuse. And the first, you're going to be back. Don't worry.

Now you're a regular. Awesome. Thanks, man. I really appreciate it, honestly. Thank you. of happy, sad, confused. Remember to review, rate, and subscribe to this show on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts.

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