The Big Picture - ‘Prey’ and the ‘Predator’ Movie Rankings

Episode Date: August 8, 2022

The latest in the ‘Predator’ movie saga, ‘Prey,’ is streaming on Hulu now. Chris Ryan joins Sean to talk about the film and where it sits in the ‘Predator’ canon (1:00). Then, ‘Prey’ director Dan Trachtenberg talks with Sean about how he made the film (44:00). Host: Sean Fennessey Guests: Dan Trachtenberg and Chris Ryan Producer: Bobby Wagner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's the summer. The weather is beautiful. What a perfect time to stay inside and look at our fantasy football rankings and sleepers at fantasyfootball.theringer.com and check out our podcast with Danny Kelly, Craig Kowalbeck, and this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about predators and prey. That's right. Streaming now on Hulu is Prey, the seventh installment in the Predator movie saga. This prequel is directed by Dan Trachtenberg, who made a really sharp Cloverfield movie back in 2016 called 10 Cloverfield

Lane. I'll be chatting with Dan at the end of this episode. I hope you'll stick around for that conversation. But first, to talk about Prey and what makes a Predator movie so good, the apex Predator of this podcast, Chris Ryan, what's up, CR? I've been working on my... Like the Predator sound, but I can't get it right. I can't introduce myself as that. Fortunately, you did bring your heat vision glasses for this episode,

so you're able to sense. Yes, truly. Chris, you are, despite fumbling the bag in the 1987 movie draft on this film Predator, an avowed fan of this franchise. What did you think

when you heard that there was going to be a new movie coming out? As soon as I heard Trachtenberg was directing it, I was like, this is going to be good. Because he may not have made a great movie yet, but somebody is going to give this dude a great script one of these days, and he is going to get fucking busy when that happens. I think that this is... It's fun to bet on guys or do a little stock tips here on the big picture. Dan Traxenberg

doesn't really miss. It's just that he's still trying to find his lane. And I hope that that lane is not Fantastic Four, although God bless him if it is. I hope it doesn't wind up being Black Adam 2. But if he still is working

in this action thriller genre in a couple years, he's going to find like the right story to tell that's not a prequel, that's not a sequel, that's not a reimagining, and it's going to be a banger. Yeah, I kind of asked him about this and I didn't want to hurt his feelings, but I was sort of like, so you're awesome. What you been doing with your time for the last six years? Because, you know, 10 Cloverfield Lane, as I mentioned, he directed,

which is, you know, pretty nifty little thriller that I think you and I both enjoyed. We might have even seen that movie together. And he also made Playtest, one of the better episodes of Black Mirror in the last five years.

Very good episode. And he's done a handful of other work on TV. I think he directed The Boys Pilot. He did. Yes. So he's like,

he's got some magic dust to him. It's the Playtest episode. It's cool that you bring that up because my dream for him is that he is the John Carpenter to Wyatt Russell's Kurt Russell, and that they go and make a really good genre movie together. That would be really exciting. In the meantime, we have Prey. So let's talk about this movie a little bit, and then I want to get your thoughts on the wider predator movie universe um this movie stars amber midthunder as the lead in dakota beavers and dane de la gero um the plot is basically this in the comanche nation in 1719 a young warrior named naru learns the prey she is stalking is a highly evolved alien with a technologically advanced arsenal

and then chaos in the wilderness ensues and this is basically a largely silent adventure hunter movie um it's a true prequel to the story i think the idea is that this is the first predator that has landed on earth or many more to come uh we know this movie also features a full cast of native american and first nation actors and it makes history as the first feature film to receive a full comanche language dub. So if you're watching on Hulu, you can watch the film in Comanche. So this is a, as action movie franchise spinoffs go,

pretty top tier. I was kind of amazed by how good it was. What did you think? Yeah, a little bit of slow out of the gates. You know, I think that Predator movies are often defined by when the Predator shows up. This is like the reverse of Jaws. Like, I'm not really here to like,

I want the Predator to be present, you know? Like, I think in the first one, it's pretty cool how he remains invisible and just like all you get is his POV with the thermals for a while. But after that, like, if you're going to watch a Predator movie, you want some engagement with the species.

That being said, after about like minute 25, 30 of this movie, when it cranks into the chase slash hunt film that it is, I don't really have a lot of notes. I mean, the thing that really works is every Predator movie is sort of defined by its setting. And they have found in the Great Plains, and it looks like Montana, kind of. I mean, I think I recognized a couple of those rivers from Yellowstone.

I just think in the Great Plains, they have this really awesome scenario where it's like, what if this predator was hunting in relatively wide open spaces? It doesn't have the claustrophobia of the jungle or the city in the first two films. And it doesn't have the claustrophobia of the jungle or the city in the first two films and it doesn't have the kind of almost weird cosmic otherness of the predators movie it's got like this sort of western feel to it in a lot of ways and it's got a very very elemental story of this person coming of age by realizing what they need to do to like hunt the thing that it cannot be hunted yeah that's the fascinating thing about it too is it always seemed like there were no characters ever had the upper hand on the predator not even arnold schwarzenegger you never really felt like he had he withstood a chance and he you know in the first film he obviously finds a way to i don't know about outwit but essentially

outplay the predator basically and in this He finds a loophole, basically. And in this movie, it is elemental is the word you use. And I think that that's a really good way of describing it. There is something really muddy, dusty, you know, grimy about the way that this story is told and that the only way to kind of survive in this environment, especially one without technology, because it's set in the 1700s, is to be the craftiest hunter. And Amber Mint Thunder's character knows the 1700s is to be the craftiest hunter and amber mint thunders character like knows the terrain really well and so it affords the opportunity to essentially see this open beautiful space that being said you know tractenberg told me that he wanted to just tell

this story through action and especially in the last 70 or so minutes of the movie there's three or four truly exceptional set pieces i talked to him a little bit about the sequence in the kind of like swamp hole that, you know, kind of sets up the finale of the movie. Check out swamp hole for sure. Truly. What do you make of him as like more of an action filmmaker? Because 10 Cloverfield Lane and Playtests, those are kind of interior stories. They're more thriller driven. They're not action movies. What do you make of him as a physical filmmaker? what it is you're watching. Up until a certain point, you think it's just a kidnapping thriller, but it turns out the kidnapper is right about his paranoia.

With this film, the thing I was really most impressed by was he obviously constructs the movie out of these action sequences, but is confident enough in those sequences to let them breathe. I'll give you an example of what I'm talking about, what the opposite of that is.

I was watching No Time to Die with my mom last night, which I hadn't seen since we saw it in the theater when it first came out. And there are tons of cool things happening in that movie, but they never let them breathe enough. So you'll get a cool shot or a cool sequence, and then they need to jam another sequence right on top of it,

or have a major plot turn right on top of it so that you're never thinking in terms of tension and release. It's just all chaos the whole time. And the cool thing about Prey is you'll get, and are we allowed to talk about like specific sequences in this movie? Yeah, sure.

Okay, so there's a standout bear chase in this movie and he knows what he's got. He has constructed this scene and he's like, this is sick. People are going to love this. I have to build up to it and then let them breathe after it so that I can't now immediately throw like 15 other things on top of it. And because it's such a spare story, he has the room to do that. Yeah. One of the interesting choices that he makes is while there are supporting characters in the movie unlike even the most successful predator movies it's not about like picking the team off it's not an ensemble yeah it's not like that you know and i think that that's a good thing because in particular predators and even the predator

the shane black movie from a handful of years ago basically cast like seven b to b plus actors and then they were slowly killed one by one in the movie which is such a familiar refrain from the original film that i think just centralizing this story on naru as a character was really really smart it's a pretty pretty solid movie you know the movie is going straight to hulu so i think by the time people hear this a lot of people who are really interested in it probably would have seen it which on the one hand is cool that people don't have to drag their ass in the movie theater. On the other hand, I had a chance to see it on a big screen. I think you watched it on a TV at home.

It stinks. I mean, the movie's really good. I'm mad. It's weird, isn't it? Yeah. I mean, especially right now. So we're recording this on August 2nd. I don't really have anything to see this weekend. Yeah. It's bullet train and that's it. That really is the release schedule. And guess what? I'm capable of seeing both. I'm happy to see. I would be happy to take on both of those things. It's a good reminder of what would have been circa 2017 when you and I definitely would have just parked it at the ArcLight on a Friday at 4 p.m. and watched four movies.

Yeah. What am I trying to do? Let's go see a double feature and get dinner. I really wish this had come out. And especially, there are probably, you could conceive of a Predator movie that would be good for streaming. But it's not this one, both because of the landscapes. And now I'm kind of just associate streaming stuff with a degree of talkiness and i i have to just admit that sometimes you know like your eyes wander maybe to your phone or whatever and you can kind of keep up with the movie because of you know the dialogue is happening

in the background right i'm not incapable of watching something like this but i will say that on a big screen where you're just present with the film, I think this would have played even better. But I don't have, like I said, even on a small screen or a smaller screen, I was pretty captivated with what I saw, especially the second and third acts. Yeah, I hadn't really thought about it that way,

but you're right. This sort of borderline silent cinema approach that the movie takes for long stretches really works against it as an at-home watch because you're just not immersed in it and people are going to be second screening like crazy which is really a shame um i don't want to concern troll something that hasn't even happened yet but this just feels like a product of decision making in the face of covid for a you know a streamer and a series of conglomerated companies

that are trying to stay ahead in an arms race. And if you have a mid-budget Predator movie, especially given the performance of the Shane Black film, maybe you just feel like, hey, this can just kind of boost, this can kind of limit our churn rate for Hulu for the month of August. So we're going to stick it here.

It is kind of a drag in the overall grand scheme of things because Trachtenberg is a real filmmaker. It's a real cinematic action movie. And we get a lot of action movies, but I wouldn't say we get a lot of high quality action movies these days. And so it's just really unfortunate. On the other hand,

Predator movies are thriving. There are probably more now than I would have guessed circa 1995. In 1995, five years after the second Pred movie i think i thought to myself so they're just not going to make any more of these and you had reason to believe that you were never going to see another one two is somewhat maligned only moderately become like a cult classic it has and we will definitely talk about it here but then we got this stream of them first with the alien versus predator sequels which are i guess not canonical necessarily but are definitely predator movies and then now this is

three in the last 11 years 12 years yeah so each time has been taken over by pretty interesting filmmaker i mean obviously uh robert rodriguez produced predators but Nimrod Antal directed it. Shane Black, who is featured as an actor in the first film and sometimes is wrongly given authorial credit for the first movie, even though he didn't write it, wrote and directed a pretty maligned and controversial, but pretty enjoyable, dumb shit action movie version of this called The Predator. And now we get Trachtenberg

with this complete reimagining. What do you think attracts these filmmakers out of all the intellectual properties to Predator stories, which are, you know, pretty straightforward stories? I'm sure it's different for each one. I think, obviously,

if Trachtenberg told you, like, I wanted to be able to tell a story driven by action, like, that makes a lot of sense. I think obviously if Trachtenberg told you I wanted to be able to tell a story driven by action, that makes a lot of sense. I think Shane Black and possibly McTiernan, there is a version of this that is kind of an action comedy or at least like a witty, wry action film. But ultimately, I think it's the idea

that you get to play with a very, very, very primal cinematic depiction of a hunt. And I think people get very fired up about it. It's both why we watch horror films. It's why we watch nature documentaries. There's a lot of elements to it that are very appealing, even to somebody who might not be into the mythology of where these things come from, or why they've come to Earth Earth or what exactly the technology is. So before we get into a proper order of what are the best of these films...

Can I ask you one more thing about the release of this, though? Yeah, sure. So this is... Hulu has these mid-tier movies that they are regularly just putting on like is it fox searchlight or is it like essentially like like that version of fox is like here's this is i think this is 21st century fox okay 20 or 20th century films whatever they've rebranded as is essentially

what it's the it's the last remnants of the fox proper distribution arm okay so it's like i this is the second time this year i guess that we're chatting about one of these movies because i think you and i talked a bit about no exit right we did yes and i really really want to believe that the accessibility to these movies will lead them to be seen by more people but this is the second time where i'm like i just wonder whether or not if this was in a theater it would would have caught on harder. You know what I mean? Which is not to say that this movie is not going to be successful and people aren't going to be tweeting about it all weekend or something like that. I think that it'll be enjoyed. But I do kind of wonder whether

or not it's indicative of whether or not something can be a word of mouth sensation if it's a movie online. Yeah. I mean, the data apparently shows that films that get theatrical releases actually perform better on streaming and on PVOD and VOD. So a film like No Exit probably has less of a chance to significantly succeed than, say, the Bob's Burgers movie as an example, because that's a movie that did get a theatrical release even, and they're both distributed by Fox and Hulu and this kind of arm. The other thing is you kind of have to look at the agreements that are made between the production companies that participate in the making of the movie.

So for example, on September 9th, there's a horror movie coming out called Barbarian that I don't know a whole hell of a lot about, but it's Stars Bill Skarsgård. I'm very excited about it. It feels really in our zone, I would say.

Yeah. That movie is getting a theatrical release even though it doesn't have a predator in it and so why is prey going straight to streaming but barbarian is going into theaters i don't i think it's because regency is the production partner on that film and regency must have some sort of distribution agreement that all their films get a theatrical release. Regency also partnered with Fox on Amsterdam, the forthcoming David O. Russell movie. And that movie, of course, is also going to movie theaters. So it's not as simple as there's a guy, Jim Searchlight or Bobby Sony in the parlance of The Watch podcast isn't just saying like, we need this over here and this over here and this over here.

There's all kinds of agreements that have been made that make it confusing. It just, it works against the viewer in some respects because I think a lot of people just don't even know

what Prey is. Like, you really need a podcast like this. You need a billboard. You need something to tell you like, hey guys, there's a new Predator movie. It doesn't have the word Predator

in the title either. So it's not like the easiest marketing sell of all time but i we're just we're in a nether zone we're in this purgatorical space of movie release now that is very confusing and very frustrating i think for some people most people don't even realize they're just like they fire up hulu they see something they might want to check out it's got a giant shark in it and they're happy but for guys like us, and especially people I think who listen to shows like ours

to get a real sense of the landscape and to see what should I watch? It's more confusing than it ever has been. It seems like it's going to be a couple years before it really gets sorted. I'm sure it's going to be a while before this all shakes out because it's probably a lot of pandemic era thinking which they were, I guess, admirably

able to spin up pretty quickly when you think about it, is now going to take years to unwind. Yeah. I think there's also just two significant factors, post-merger stuff in addition to pandemic, where you've got a lot of companies that have consolidated and more companies that are going to consolidate. And then honestly, everything that has happened in Netflix, as you and I have discussed in the last few weeks, has many studios, just based on folks that I've talked to, basically reconsidering their entire strategy towards streaming. It'll be really interesting to see what Disney Plus looks like in two years, because they're

going to have to, in some respects, go away from this very locked-in strategy they've had. We're really getting off topic, but I think I texted you the other night when I was looking to watch something, I think in preparation for either the 1987 draft or something else and i was like are you aware of all these like micro streaming services that they offer through amazon but are essentially like flix flix and monster mash and like and i'm like do these companies just go around and buy like two dozen titles and then just twiddle their thumbs until they get acquired by a bigger streamer.

But is that almost like you're flipping properties, like flipping IP? I think many of those companies need to show that they've built the infrastructure in the event of acquisition. So that if they are bought by an Amazon or bought by a Viacom, that they can plug into the system that pre-exists. Now, part of it is just like the arms race with no end in sight,

you know, and a movie like Prey, which is a really fun movie that I think guys like you and I are going to anticipate and maybe even watch a couple of times, are ultimately just remainders on the ledger. You know, they're just a part of like the corporate scheme, but I don't, I don't want to get too caught up on that. No. And can I, I'm going to say one thing in favor of the release of prey,

the way it's being released is you can immediately go back and break down like kind of how he did certain things or how he sets up or how he shoots certain things, which has always been, I think kind of the coolest part about the straight to streaming or having films on streaming is the ability to kind of go back 15 seconds,

go back 30 seconds and then kind of like, oh, neat, like that was a steadicam shot and the bear is out of frame. And then, you know, like all that stuff that you kind of on the first pass

are really only reacting to viscerally. You can almost break down like it's game tape. That is a really, that is a nice benefit of this moment in movie release history. Let me ask you this about Predator movies. How would you do in a Predator setting if you were being hunted? That's a great question, man. I don't really have, I think, a marketable skill in the Predator economy. I'm not particularly well-built. i would call myself like witty but not somebody who is good at outwitting people you know do you know what i'm saying like i don't think unless the

predator is disarmed by my sense of humor like i don't think you are definitely witty there's no question about that but it's not like i'm like i will construct this beaver dam to you know incapacitate the predator as i run away you are i would say an expert at reading the emotionality of the room though sure and so i wonder if if as long as the predator is uncloaked i feel like toe-to-toe you have charisma in your favor yeah yeah yeah you you and predator doing a pod that would be a pod. You know, you're legendary for being able to pod with anybody. Anybody. Yeah.

You and the Apex Predator. Come on. So I would be like Predator. A lot of people saying that Golden Stage shouldn't be penalized for having their homegrown talent now count against the luxury tax. What say you? Oh, so Jordan Poole, you think is that that might be a guy they move huh that'd be a good show that would be a really really good show um how about the predator empowerment era that could

be the name of the show oh yeah like it's just like nobody's asking the predators what they think yeah why are we not letting the predator play in the nba too by the way are you guys worried about the predator going to taiwan uh yeah i think you would not survive i think you would last all the five minutes against a predator i say that with love and respect so one thing that like i do think i have going for me is strangely i've seen most of the predator movies with the exception of the alien versus predator ones multiple times and i think i know what to do and what not to do. I definitely think that no matter what, if I

have even the slightest hint that a Predator might be in the vicinity, I'm getting covered in mud. Stripping down, getting covered in mud. That seems to be the cheat code against the Predator. And something that Danny Glover really did not have at his expense in Predator 2. Because of Los Angeles. But you'd also think that the Predators would have kind of a WhatsApp just being like,

hey, by the way, these Earthlings love to just jump in the dirt whenever we show up. So just make sure you do an extra thorough check before you move on. Truly exceptional stuff. How do you think I would do against the Predator? I've been weighing this. You know, you're very poised thank you and in most of these movies somebody freaks out you know what I mean and I think that you wouldn't do that I don't know I mean I honestly though after that like I don't really

know what you're gonna do about it like you're kind of like you have you have a bad back um I do you don't like to share so in any kind of survivalist situation I don't know if you're kind of like you have you have a bad back um i do you don't like to share so in any kind of survivalist situation i don't know if you're gonna really be like bringing along the group you know uh which then puts you kind of with a target on your back because you're rolling solo right yeah but i'm a survivor you know yeah survive in advance that's been my approach to life and um i feel like one-on-one I would definitely I would definitely I want to get killed by the spear you know the so I want to go quick I need the the three dots on my forehead oh you want the laser target yeah don't I don't want to go out like Jesse Ventura okay all right

I'm like my cavity is open for like 30 seconds but the the Jamaican gangbangers who are assaulted by the spear in predator 2 that's kind of how I want to go um I guess this question is what do you want to be doing when the predator comes you know what will you be like it was a life worth living I know what you want to be doing you want to be cranking it you want to go out on top uh what do I want to be doing I mean probably just watching a 4k yeah once upon a time in the West before I catch a spear in the back of the head. Why would the Predator be coming after me?

I probably wouldn't be perceived as a threat. What if the currency of the Predator world was Blu-rays? I love that. I love the idea of the Predator home planet just being surrounded by incredible physical media. So you never watched the alien versus predator movies i did but i i just i haven't revisited them are you gonna you're gonna come from the no ws anderson is actually a secret genius no i did see it's weird i'm surprised by

this i would have thought that you and i would have participated in this together it was right around when we met when these movies started coming out they're they're the least good predator movies in my opinion but i saw both of them in movie theaters i remember thinking to myself oh sanat layton is an alien versus predator this is probably going to be good and shout out to her i'm sure she got a dope paycheck she was not the worst action heroine of all time but that movie doesn't really stack up to the others um do you have them at the bottom tier of i do i kind of can't consider i mean like i'm sure they're not without their pleasures and I'm sure we'll get some feedback being like, you dorks don't understand, like, this is

actually, like, the true competition is the alien versus the predator and they're not these humans. But they just never really, like, I didn't find them either exciting or funny, which I think is probably, like, the, you have to choose one.

In the Alien vs. Predator universe, is that sort of like you vs. Amanda in the movie draft, or me vs. you? Who does that represent, do you think? I think at this point, it would probably be you vs.

Quentin. Not based on the recent voting. I think by the recent voting, you took an L. How do you feel about that? I did, but I think the vote was split. There was a lot of third parties running. I don't know what you mean.

You're the king of third party voting, but I'm not sure what you mean. Let's just say, because it was mentioned in the room that maybe Quentin and Roger should run against one another in one primary, and then the big pick three to retain the integrity of our records

should have a separate poll. I see. I wonder whether or not Quentin and Roger siphoned votes from me, is what I'm saying. I think even if that had been the case, and you added up all of Quentin and Roger's votes, you still would not have defeated me. And then Bobby just dropped an interesting factoid the case and you added up all of Quentin and Roger's votes, you still would not have defeated me. That's just one of my takes.

Bobby just dropped an interesting factoid that many people are talking about how there was some talk that the CR heads are letting Sean have this one so that the drafts could continue. I see. I see. So, Sean, hey, congrats, man. For sure. We're all super proud of you, man.

Chris, I think we all know that in the my guys vaping at the apple store just being like let's let him have one cr we know you we know you blinked man we know you sat next to quentin tarantino and you i did i totally admit that yeah sorry sorry for getting freaked out by the guy who made pulp fiction uh okay so avp and avp requiem bottom of the list talk me out of it though like do you have them higher i can't i mean i think predator 2 is like kind of a piece of shit but it's fun um and i think that you know this conversation is somewhat marred by the very uh problematic and unfortunate circumstances of some of the production of the predator which you know setting all that stuff aside that is external to the film you You and I are really big Shane Black fans. You're probably the biggest Shane Black fan I've ever met.

I still felt like that movie was not really fully together. Like, if I look at the list of all of the Predator movies, it's probably number five for me behind, you know, the two original films and Predators and this new one, honestly. I got very, very, very pot committed to my, this movie is going to be good take yeah and there are moments in the film specifically with sterling k brown who is basically he's got nanobots running through his blood in that movie he's just so good yeah where you're like there is like the the promise of this film is astonishing. But then they put like the kid from Room, isn't it?

Jacob Tremblay. Yeah. And like he has like a major part in the film, which was not what I signed up for. And just generally speaking, I think some of the humor just, you know, left of target there. And while I really appreciated what he was going for there were

some really bad special effects there was some really weird cutting and it was obviously marred by like everything that happened around the production of that film and just like there was it was just like bad vibe central coming into that movie that's that's what it is there's something there's an air of we cursed we screwed up with something is not right here. Okay, so then let's put The Predator at number five. You could make the case that, well, it's not worse than Alien vs. Predator Requiem. So that leaves us

with four films. I would say Predator 2 is honestly less successful than Prey. Can you debate me on that? Speaking of movies of their time, this is a film starring danny glover ruben blades and maria conchita alonzo uh during a heat wave in los angeles these detectives are trying to quell a gang war between colombians and jamaicans you forgot about gary bucey by the way

oh bucey and bill paxton sorry i mean it's like that cast is pretty awesome pretty sick and it is like the most 1990 plot like it was just like maybe movies are bad for people like i don't even like it's just like real bad stereotypes of colombians jamaicans and get them getting murdered by the predator and and danny glover slowly kind of coming to the conclusion that perhaps this is elevated beyond the just mere gang warfare in LA. On the one hand- That being said- Yeah, yeah.

I mean, it does, it precedes the LA riots and the sort of the Rodney King incident and everything that sort of, it does, you know, I wouldn't say it predicts it because it's such an outlandish caricature. This is an incredible take from you though.

Predator 2 predicts the Rodney King riots is just outstanding shit. Well, all I'm going to say is it's like pretty much an offensive portrayal of LA, but also LA was on the verge. What would happen if you were unemployed and you were just like on your couch and be like,

before I go to work at Best Buy today, I just want to say that Predator 2 doesn't get enough credit for depicting the socioeconomic divides of early 90s Los Angeles. All I'm saying is before Gavin Newsom mounts his big run for president, just take a look at Predator 2, get a sense. That's what's going to happen. The cultural diaspora of our city. And, you you know just keep it in mind when when analyzing the country yeah um i think that predator 2 has has had like a little bit of like a fun film twitter like revival over the years um i still prefer the next three over it i I think. Yeah, I do too.

You and I were pretty heavy. Well, I'll say I think Prey is probably the third best of these films in totality. Okay. I probably need to see it again. It might need to go to like four or five over time and rewatches. Predator 2, like I just rewatched it last night, which is why all of my sociopolitical thoughts

about it are fresh in my mind. It's like so loud and noisy and stupid and 1990 that it some points are docked i think but it's a product of its time it's a complete product of like the kind of post post jim cameron being a real step down because it's like very much so we'll get to the first one but the first one is one of the great action movies maybe ever made so um okay prey at three talk about predators a little bit because i think you and i both love this movie and it's a little bit forgotten to time at the moment yeah so i remember uh you know this this was came with a lot of fanfare both because of the rodriguez angle but also just because i think it was advertised as a sort of no-nonsense, gritty take on the franchise, which had not typically been the treatment.

Obviously, you have the sci-fi elements of the Alien vs. Predator stuff. The first two films have a lot of one-liners and a lot of meme-ability. And this was supposed to be more, I think, straight-faced and what if the world's worst criminals were put in a gaming preserve that is there for predators? That being said, there's a lot of funny stuff in this,

especially from Walton Goggins. He's amazing in this movie. It's got an incredible cast. If people haven't seen it, I will not reveal the late act period, like a cameo that happens. I love that reveal when I saw it the first time. I mean, should we just say what happens?

Are we holding out hope that people didn't see Predators while they listened to minute 37 of a Predator podcast? This is a 12-year-old film, so it's a good point. You were talking about Laurence Fishburne. Laurence fishburne shows up as like a kind of stowaway who has crossed over let's just say and uh it's just really rad i don't think they had like an ending in mind adrian brody also is like a yoked up action star is a is a really interesting choice on his way to being like dude number eight in nine Wes Anderson movies

for the rest of his career. I feel like most people bought Adrian Brody's stock on The Pianist, but you really bought it on this film. This is when you were like, this is my guy now.

This is my new Arnold Schwarzenegger. I just thought it was kind of cool that he could go from like nervy New York weirdo to this. And I think it obviously never popped off for him as a headline movie star, but he has developed himself a pretty fantastic late period career between Succession, Winning Time, Wes Anderson. He's fucking great. Can I tell you something?

I think the reason that you and I have such a fondness for this movie is because it is the perfect fusion of trash special ops and junk sci-fi. It is literally right in the Venn diagram center of those two subgenres. Then when they're like, is that enough? And I'm like, that sounds like it's enough. They're like, what if I added a

Yakuza character? It's pretty sick. And also, Mahershala Ali as a death squad soldier. Yes. I mean,

this movie is pretty ridiculous. Recommended if people haven't seen it, even though we've just spoiled it. Did I mention Topher Grace was in it

too? Yes. What a weird movie. He's like basically the Paul Reiser from Aliens character. That's right. Kind of.

That's right. Right? I mean, I think he's like a serial killer, but I think he's supposed to be like, why am I here? You know? Is he a serial killer? Yeah.

He starts like poisoning people. Oh, right. Because they're all killers. It's like the worst criminals. And he's just like, I don't know why I'm here. I'm just wearing a vest. Interesting.

Okay. So that's Predators. The movie Predator, you've talked about it many times. You did a whole rewatchables about it. In the year of our Lord, 2022, when you look back on the 35th anniversary of Predator,

what do you think? It's timeless. I just don't think it's really aged a day. And that's pretty astonishing considering the fact that it's got a pretty significant amount of it. It's got some special effects to it that you think would really, I mean, even watching E.T., you're like, okay, man. But it's not that it's ever,

there's tons of implausible stuff. I think it's the best use of Schwarzenegger. I think that it's the most interesting and entertaining and also fucked up first 40 minutes of any of these movies, because usually the first act is the characters involved trying to be like, what the fuck is happening? Like, why are people getting picked off?

Why is this violence that we're seeing so much more gruesome than we're used to? And I thought Prey played with that really interestingly with the idea that, you know,

the Comanches are witnessing like kind of the incursion of these trappers and the fur trappers. By the way, fur trappers seem like all-time scumbags. Pretty awful people.

We haven't really gotten a lot of like, here's a positive spin on the French-Canadian fur trapper. Sounds like a really good project for you. Reclaiming their dignity. Yeah, why not? No, they're pretty bad. And I think they were used very effectively in this story. And you're right.

Predator, it has that faint, that sleight of hand where it seems like it's going to be a kind of like Iran-Contra story about Bolivians who are invading in a certain space. And it's very much

not that at all. It's something completely different. It's not about the Russians. Yeah, I mean, when you first encounter, when the soldiers that we're following encounter the patrol

that came before them, that's one of the all-time like, oh, shit moments. What is happening here? Their skin is stripped off following encounter the patrol that came before them that's one of like the all-time like oh shit moments what is happening yeah their skin is stripped off and everything that's remarkable um no when you get like a special forces soldier crossing himself it's about to go down is the predator team that is assembled in that first film the best team like is it is it better than the dirty dozen you know is it better than the Dirty Dozen? That's a whole future episode for us to do.

I don't want to step on it. I mean, so Best Squad? Yeah. So it's basically Magnificent Seven, Dirty Dozen, The Predator Guys,

Ocean's Eleven. Seven Samurai. There's so many. Seven Samurai. Yeah. Germinate on that. The journalists from Spotlight. Yep, for sure.

All right, don't step on that query because we can get definitely 75 minutes out of that. Maybe more. Squad draft? Great. That's a great idea. And you could pick it like physical attributes attributes best hang yeah worst hang yeah yeah i love it i love it being glorious bastards they would be on that

list for sure yeah um i have one last very quick movie draft question for you before i let you go um someone suggested on social media that we do a draft don't release it release the lineup of the films that were selected but don't put a name on it and see who wins based on the roster and then release the episode so people can hear it and learn who got someone tweeted this someone someone tweeted it at me i'm someone yeah well honestly if i came up with the idea i would proudly share it with you i feel no reason to suggest that was it conforto fan 646 like what was it i i no longer pledge loyalty to michael conforto um are you against that because then you're then your crew of of cretins would not be able to manipulate the system.

Let's see where we get through. I think that... I don't know why you're like, I'm going to nominate... I'm going to endorse both of these guys for the Senate. Let's keep playing straight up. I think you have some good ideas for variations on upcoming drafts. I'm very excited about them.

Doing a blind taste test. Because I think that there's an element of it that people draft because of the list of movies that. Because I think that there's an element of it that people draft because of the list of movies that they see. And then there's an element that people draft because of performance.

I've gotten dinged because my brain short, like a fuse went out and I picked the wrong movie first or like Quentin Tarantino like intimidates me or whatever. Yeah. Not intimidates me,

but you know, like I just like was like, what would he pick? Yeah. You were psychologically analyzing. I was trying to, like I just like was like, what is, what would he pick? You know, you got, you were psychologically analyzing. I was trying to do too much. I was like, I was like a poker player who was trying to guess everybody's hand and it

just didn't work. But I'm still happy with the movies. I got out of there. I think that there are times though, where like people have done like just great work, you know, like your, your personality is just shown through on a movie draft.

And that's what people are voting for. It's not necessarily the movies. It's the man. Is there anything else? Not to put too fine a point on, is there any more meat on the bone when it comes to the Predator franchise? Where, where do you want to see the Predator go next? Um, I think there's a lot. I mean, honestly, it's, it's very fungible. You know, we could go to 6th century China. You know, we could go to the future on Earth.

We could go to any number of places. I feel like it's very adaptable. Maybe that's what Greyman 2 is about. Maybe Gosling has to fight a predator. I think that's actually what Greyman's about.

Oh, Greyman 2. Yeah, sorry. That's what I meant. I don't know. What about you? You want to see more of these? Yeah, I can't decide. Like I was kind of like

knew it would be badass is like a medieval Predator. Like Predator versus Knights. That would be pretty good. Like if we're going to keep going backwards. So if they do that, I feel like the ending should be that they find a way to have the Predator

contract the bubonic plague. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, that would be cool. Yeah, that's a little world of the world. It's podcasting Predator. So so predator with a pod or predator is killing podcasters bobby see the actually is the premise is you and the predator have a pod it's a long running show very successful and kind of like the come town choppo org you know you're in that dirt bag left but then the predator becomes radicalized and swings hard right oh okay yeah and then it's

like he said he said and you guys are kind of bickering every time but like he actually has like a laser on his shoulder it's the mclaughlin group but in the 21st century and then it ends with you being shot in the face yeah i think also there's like a whole realm of, of, of place you could go with predator is just like a comic kind of like, it's like, you know, a sitcom or like the predator is a gym teacher, but like, like don't come in last because he will stab you in the spine.

Yeah. Or like, what about sort of like a, like a home improvement setup where there's like a family living in a house, but the predator is next door. And he can like buzzsaw things with like his, yeah. But you only see like the top of his a, like a home improvement setup where there's like a family living in a house, but the predator lives next door. And he can like buzzsaw things with like his, his hand.

Yeah, but you only see like the top of his head, you know, like Wilson and neighbor in home improvement, but you can see the dreadlocks. That would be good.

Yeah. Yeah. I think we're onto something. I think we got to take the predator IP back out. Was Trachtenberg like, not to step on it, was he like,

I'll do more of these? Was he, did he, did he talk at all? he was like, I heard you and Chris have some really good ideas. So I'd love to get with you guys

and talk about our sitcom possibilities. My cast predator. I think he was just like, I've been doing this for four years and I haven't had a chance to really think about much else because it seemed like a very challenging movie to make. And you can tell there's like a lot of physical fortitude

in the performances, in the filmmaking style. And it paid off. I think people should check it out. It's a cool movie. It's awesome. I was really happy about it. I hope people watch it. It's like a really cool... Late summer is coming for us, man. We got Prey. We got Bodies.

We got a bunch of movies coming that I feel like are cool genre movies. It's almost like reverse dumpuary. It's the CR zone. This is where you thrive. The desert of the real. It's almost like reverse dumpuary. It's the CR zone. This is where you thrive. The desert of the real. That's right. Chris, thanks for doing this, man. You're the only predator for me. Let's go to my conversation with Dan Trachtenberg.

Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. Dan Trachtenberg is here. He's the director of a new Predator film called Prey. So Dan, let's start with Predator. What's your relationship to the original, all the films? When did you see it? Tell me the whole emotional backstory. It's quite emotional. I was in third grade when the original came out and was desperate to see it,

but was not allowed to see it, but was not allowed to see R-rated movies, which is, you know, fair enough. So, but I have a very distinct memory of being in the back of a minivan on the way, in a carpool on the way to a karate tournament. And all the sixth graders had just seen Predator. So they spent the entire ride um to like the local y or wherever the tournament was um describing the entire movie to me and and i very much remembered them saying there was a there was a fight on a bridge over a waterfall

between billy the native american tracker, and the predator. And then years later, when I eventually saw the movie, that scene I saw was not in it. So that definitely is the seed of this. And I also remember when i eventually did watch it um there was another one of my best friends we did this ritual where we would rent movies um and then buy the man magazine that had the parody of that specific movie we did it with predator and we did it with crocodile dungy too or it's my distinct memory um and we would like watch the movie then pause then read the Mad Magazine parody up until that point they continue watching the movie and then read the Mad it was um pretty crazy yeah it was fun do you remember what they called Predator in the Mad Magazine

parody oh my gosh I have no idea what do you I don't they must have just changed the title to something very very dumb but very clever I thought you're about to blow my mind no no I wish I wish I could remember it um right so when you saw the movie yeah I'll be googling that excuse me when you saw the movie did you think I'm gonna make one of these one day is that something that you would you would allow to roll into your mind the thing that I did think when I saw this my other tidbit of nostalgia was, I think, GamePro magazine or Nintendo Power would have a contest, draw out a level, and it would feature in the magazine. And I did that for Predator and did not get in the magazine. Though I will say, our post-production office, where we edited the movie. We had an old Nintendo with predator,

the predator NES game. And it is atrocious. It is so it's, it's, it's impossible. It's, it's made to be impossible. So I'm sure the level that I designed far surpassed. Oh,

they called it the predecessor. Interesting. Thank you for looking that up. Yeah. Tell me about how you got into this, because this movie's been brewing for a few years. I can't say I was necessarily hankering for a Predator prequel, and yet seeing it, I'm like,

this makes a lot of sense in the arc of the story now after you've finished the film. So how did it come about um well i i think i was very inspired by um mad max fury road and really hankering to also make a movie that would be largely um uh told through action and um i didn't want it to just be a visceral experience i really wanted it to see if i could make it an emotional one as well um so i thought about maybe taking the engine of a sports movie of an underdog story and injecting it into a genre film um and then thinking about that it was like well wouldn't it be great if the protagonist was one that we never see in the movie um and unfortunately native americans and comanche in particular are so

often relegated to playing the sidekick or the villain and never the hero um so uh it was sort of the combination of all those things and then wanting to do period sci-fi inherently anyway and um and if it's an underdog story you know the opponent needs to be like the most ultimate opponent i didn't want to just be man against the elements want to be man against the impossible man against the impossible so um all of those things fused together. And I had this idea that I got really excited about, though I knew that they were making, they were prepping or in production on the last Predator movie. So I pitched it as calling it Prey,

thinking that it was an avenue for them to be making like the main franchise films and then this kind of movie would be sort of like like rogue one or solo functioned with um with the star wars franchise so uh and then and then that movie came out and then the fox disney merger happened and the movie kind of went away and then thankfully awesome people over a 20th read the script and was like wait a second this is are we making this cool um and then people got excited about it again so i want to ask you more about this film but what you just described which is sort of contemporary clever pitching for studios understanding where ip is and how it could even fit into a calendar three to five years down the road like is that a skill that you had to develop is that something

that comes to you naturally how do you know how to do that it was um i mean that in this specific case it was out of desperation because i thought i was like this is so good and and i think you know my reps were like well they're already making like they're already making one so it's not of all the things to be pitching developing don't let's put our eggs in another bet you know but i thought if i could find a way to make it make even more sense um while they were still working on something else um then then it would benefit uh then it would get the movie going because everything is like a desperation of like well how can i get a movie going um so and so often thinking about ip of course for existing franchises um though i have a bunch of original

things and they're the hardest to get made. This one went away. We definitely thought a lot about like, okay, it's so good. Could we just not make it a predator that, you know, but the thematic weight that the movie gets out of it being a predator movie just made it like, I just couldn't let go of that. I had to keep waiting to see if they would think about it again but i i don't know that i've thought i'm certainly not a movie business studier beyond being a fan my entire life and and thinking about summer movies and fall movies and

all of those kinds of things and um and being a student of that um just you know naturally in this case maybe it came in handy a little bit but i mean i probably don't think about that as much as i should i gotta say after i saw 10 cloverfield lane i was very excited for your career as a film director and then you worked on series television and made some really great episodes of tv in that time but it's a six six year window between the first film and this film. What, where were you in your career when you were pitching this movie in, in 18?

Um, I think I pitched it earlier than that. Uh, but I was, I mean, after Jen Clover Lane came out, um, I just was smitten on cool now I can make this

awesome original thing that I was dying to make and I had like three of those but it's still challenging it's still hard even though the movie was a success I immediately did Black Mirror episode like like the movie had just barely come out and I went to England so that was right away and then I just spent several years being kind of picky and I didn't want to just make to make you know as much as my family would love the um the income I I just really wanted um to make sure everything I made I could be super proud of and excited about and something that doesn't already exist in moviedom. So I was holding off for all the original things.

And I found, I mean, this sort of, as I was just saying a little bit, came from sneaking an original concept into a preexisting franchise. So I think that's, for me, the recipe that I was using the guide is like is the movie great on its own and then um if it's a part of a franchise does that make it even better not like how do i just sneak it into the franchise and then and shoehorn it in which i think people myself include no we can all sniff out and sometimes

we find that a little unset you know not not great but um but so this the fact that it was awesome as an idea it should be a movie already anyway and then oh my gosh if it's a predator it's even better um that anything and that was in 2017 when i pitched it um so and then and then people this was then we were working on this and I was doing previews for that. You know, things were happening and then, like I said, the Fox-State-Seminar Journal and then I went and did a TV show and I thought, oh, this will come back. So it's like

just years. And then we were in production this two years ago, you know, so it just, everything takes so much time. So you talked about the original story elements that you really wanted to get into and how to make that compelling but what what needs to go into a predator movie to make it good to make it compelling um i mean in my opinion uh i think it being very focused on the hunt the hunter

um the predator is looking for the alpha and so i looking for what who's on top so i really want to embrace all the um thematic elements that that could bring to light um i think of course there's there's visual hallmarks hallmarks heat vision and the oral hallmarks of his sounds. What I'm hoping, we did a little bit of redesign on the way that the creature looks. And for me, that was getting further into the spirit of predator you know of not being not feeling like a the first movie the 87 predator delivered on something that none of the others that followed it did it really surprised us three times we saw it cloaked all of us us, and we're like, oh, that's the predator monster. That's it, that crazy ghost thing.

And then it decloaked, and it had its space-suit-y bio-mask. We thought, oh, awesome, that's the predator. That's such a cool-looking thing. And then it takes that mask off, and then you see it for real, and you go, oh Oh no, that's the predator. Um, so I thought in, in, in redesigning it a little bit, I could give even diehard fans of the franchise, that same sense of surprise again, while really drilling into the very core of the idea that it is a, it is a space creature. Um,

I did not want to feel like it is a professional wrestler lumbering around in a suit that I sometimes feel like is the feeling from some moments in the franchise. So we really went out of our way to affect the silhouette so that our stunt player inside could move in ways that they hadn't been able to before um there's a combination of visual effects working with the practical suit so that this thing can be just that much more ferocious and alien and animalistic so um i think that's the heart of the idea uh that even the original was going after and and we wanted to sort of honor the spirit of that and deliver on something that only that first one could in terms of its formula of, you know, the three stages of the predator.

So you mentioned that Mad Max Fury Road was a big inspiration and telling a story through action was kind of a goal of yours. So was Road Warrior, by the way, because it's, it's, it's the, well, not only because it's you know the last act of road where his period but also you know mel you know man max and his dog is was very

much you know we wanted to see that one silhouette of nadu and her dog in this movie you know that's really good i mean so help help me and listeners understand how you do what you set out to do. In other words, we think of a movie and even a movie screenplay, and we just think dialogue, story, moving the plot along. This film has a plot, but it's a very straight ahead pursuit story, more or less, and then reverse pursuit. And I don't think I'm giving anything away by saying that. So are you storyboarding the entire movie as you're writing it? How are you writing action sequences into the screenplay? How much do you know you're going to do when you're preparing for the film in that way? Well, first of all, I don't want to... I mean, that was the initial instinct. And then I started working with this writer, Patrick Asin, and I got caught up in telling a potentially really lovely story about this young woman trying to prove herself. So there is some dialogue, and it's very, very hard to ship away and find the most economic way to tell it.

Because both of us were like, let's have this little dialogue in this spot, maybe no dialogue. And then we, there was like, okay, we need some, we need to establish this and that, you know? Um, so it was very challenging, um, just to hone in on, on those story beats through dialogue. And then yes, the action, um, I think it's all written out initially, but there's much more of a back and forth, my process in previs and storyboarding, motion boards and previs. And then sometimes the script changes to reflect what we discovered in previs um and then there's you know ideas that happen on the day and that were constantly open to those things because people's physicality way location looks you just can't always predict um but but yeah for this movie in particular um there was the script was constantly changing

rather rather than doing storyboards to match the script sometimes i mean we invented an entire scene the tall grass sequence wasn't an initial draft of the screenplay um that came from just an idea we were riffing on what we were previously in the movie then we just did the scene in boards and then wrote the script to reflect that sequence tell me about making a film about the comanche nation and you know all of the care that you have to put into telling a story like this. And I know you obviously have essentially dubbed dialogue in a different way so the people watching the film could hear it and understand it differently. But at what point did you realize you had to tell the story this way um well very i mean we we wrote one draft and then found this woman onita pataponi um and her her nephew dustin but she is a comanche culture bear um and uh you know shared

her initial draft of the script and then collaborated with her um to make sure we were getting everything right. And unfortunately, she passed away in the long process it took to get the movie to finally get made. And then when we needed a producer, we tracked down this woman, Jane Myers, who's Comanche herself, and was able to... So we didn't just have an an advisor though we had a number of historians advisors and all sorts of different departments um but uh we wanted to make sure that we had a producer so that was a huge part of it uh but it's not and it's not just honoring comanche you know the comanche nation it's you know we were shot in shot in canada so a lot of our talent was first

nations as well and people came from all over the uS. in addition to that to help on the film and to be part of the cast. So it really is just embracing what I think is the only way morally to make this kind of movie. But not... I think... I just think things become... The more specific you get, the more universal things become. So I think all of the cool... I don't want people to be like, oh, just for history. It's like, no, no, no.

Even the most... There's a moment in the movie where Nadu, played by Amber Mid-Thunder, whistles at night. Whistling at night is sort of like an eagle, something along those lines. And so that was the instinct of Jane. Like, oh my God, this would be great if she whistled at that you know and that made for a great really interesting character moment um but that came from culture history authenticity you know um so there's tons of things like that in the movie tell me about Amber she's pretty amazing um I couldn't recall seeing her at least not like

this in a movie before how'd you find her how'd she get ready for this part which is extreme seems extremely physically challenging um so she was in the show legion um which had some action in it as well but i uh you know we we auditioned lots of people amber i thought as soon as we saw her really struck a nerve with me. And when we auditioned, we had her do a dialogue scene three different ways. As scripted, in Comanche, and then silently. And when she did a dialogue scene without any dialogue, it was incredibly moving. And that's really what this movie needed and then even we had this whole physical portion of the rehearsal

and she never was just like running and jumping and crawling she was finding emotional beats inside the physicality of all that um which once again making a movie that's told primarily through action like that's essential so um she was amazing she then did her and all the guys did like four to six weeks of um boot camp not only learning skills like archery and and for her tomahawk and um all that's and all the fight choreography um but also just sort of bonding with each other and um learning uh sign language and um and how to be how to think and move like a hunter in 1700s i was hoping you could walk me through the submerged in the swamp sequence that plays a pretty critical role in this movie um

even with all the design and the previs and everything that you're talking about there's still like a real practicality in a physical world that you're operating in here. How do you do that? How did you make that work? It was so hard. It seemed like it. We looked a lot. We looked a lot at Never Ending Story.

Oh. Which shot on like giant sound stages you know that we did not have we dug a ditch and built a built a mud pit um in nature i will say the interesting thing is that you wouldn't know it was there when we show up in the morning to shoot you know just walking around as soon as a person entered it like as soon as human flesh interacted with whatever was in there the most horrible stench you could ever smell erupted from it i don't know what that chemical interaction was but it was um disgusting and a number of actors had to go we had doubles that had to go in there stunt performers amber um Amber, um, others, uh, that had, uh,

the other trick of it is, is once you go in, you can't be clean again for a while. So we, we actually shot it over the course of a week of shooting five days, um, where we would do like all the entrances we got that cool she gets clean we regroup then we shoot some night stuff in that scenario um in in around that sound that that that set um it was outside it wasn't the soundstage but um and then the next day we come back and we do all of her leaving the money you know like we would just have to do it over the course of the day because once you're in,

that's it. And then you don't want to spend too much time in there anyway. I will schedule because we were chasing great light and we want to dawn and it's called the tactic. We shoot a part of a scene at dusk at a night scene when it's dawn. And then we shoot the next part of that scene or a different scene. You know, it was really,

um, the movie looks as good as I think, not just because we had a great cinematographer, but really the figuring out, I mean, his collaboration with producers to figure out the proper scheduling. So the film is debuting on Hulu and I'm fascinated by this. I had the good fortune to see it on a big screen. So the film is debuting on Hulu, and I'm fascinated by this.

I had the good fortune to see it on a big screen. Predator movies, and your movie in particular, are action epics. On the one hand, so many more people are going to see this movie now, especially in the first couple of weeks, than presumably would have gone out to a theater to see it. On the other hand, maybe they're not seeing it exactly as you had imagined they would see it. I'm always interested to know how filmmakers feel about this when their work goes to a streaming service how are you feeling about this um yeah i mean look we definitely i would say this one is is even grander in scope than any of the predator movies um and we definitely designed it to be a giant experience.

So in that regard, yes, it's a shame that it's going to streaming, but also movies around forever, you know? And so who's to say there will ever be screening experiences for people to have. That said, we did do this Comanche dubbed version of the movie um that you alluded to before i forgot to speak to um and that's you know we had all the actors return um and voice their roles again in comanche so you can watch the entire film um dubbed in comanche uh on english subtitles you could not just let it wash over you um that's something that we can never have done theatrically it's it's sort of a historic moment it's the first time that's ever happened for a brand new release of a movie first time in comanche um also i will say

for those with great hdr televisions at home the movie looks green predator blood looks fantastic in hdr so that's a plus um but you know i i wish people could see the theater it's certainly a great crowd experience so i think i hope people can invite as many friends over um as they can get pop some totino's pizza rolls in the oven and uh and eat some some popcorn and have a good time. Dan, what are you doing next? Um, I don't know. I don't know. I'm so focused on finishing this. We really, we really, we really finished this. Not only,

not only did we finish this the last possible second, we finished it beyond the last possible seconds that you're allowed to finish something um so i yeah i i don't know but there's certainly lots of things that i've been involved with for a very long time that hopefully i get to make and um and more of this stuff would be great we have lots of fun ideas so um yeah we'll have to see dan we end every episode of this show by asking filmmakers what's the last great thing they have seen and they've been working hard on the film but have you seen anything great lately of course i have um of course i have and i'm trying to remember what it was um i mean i will say the things that I was talking about the most with

the proposed crew that I would not shut up about were two shows, Station Eleven and Midnight Mass. Those were like, I couldn't, I saw them, you know, back, it was like, spoils are it. It was incredible. Incredible.. Minute Mass especially. I mean, both of those shows, so great. So that could be my answer. That's great. Dan, I thought Prey was really great. Thank you for doing the show.

Thanks, man. Appreciate it. Thank you to Dan Trachtenberg. Thanks to CR. Thank you to Bobby Wagner for his work on today's episode. We'll see you later this week on The Big Picture when we'll be talking about bodies, bodies, bodies.