The Beautiful, Brutal Action of ‘Predator: Killer of Killers'
For director Dan Trachtenberg, 'Prey' was only the beginning in time-jumping the 'Predator' franchise back to the Comanche Nation 300 years ago. With 'Predator: Killer of Killers,' Trachtenberg not only embraces animation for the first time but also expands the time-jumping motif in an anthology film that spans Scandinavia in 841, feudal Japan in 1609, and the Battle of the Atlantic in 1942.
This means Predators fighting Vikings, samurai, and ninja, and World War II fighter pilots. The surviving humans then compete gladiator-style on the Predator planet, eventually going up against the titular 'Killer of Killers' Yautja.
More from IndieWire
Wayward Teens Find Solace in Horse Country During Sundance Award-Winning 'East of Wall' Trailer
'Inside' Review: Guy Pearce Delivers Another Incredible Supporting Performance in Australian Prison Drama That Cuts Through All the Bull
'It was really a pleasure to experiment and find crazy notions and ideas, and then let them literally just be that way,' Trachtenberg told IndieWire. ' It was pure indulgence. And, of course, marrying that with stories that are really emotional and intense, and characters that are facing conflicts before the Predator even shows up.'
In 'The Shield,' Viking warrior Ursa (Lindsay LaVanchy) leads her clan on an expedition to avenge the death of her father and faces off against the Predator Brute, equipped with a sonic charge from a wrist gauntlet. In 'The Shield,' two warring brothers, samurai Kenji and exiled ninja Kiyoshi (Louis Ozawa), take on the Predator Assassin, who wields, among other things, a spear that transforms. And in 'The Bullet,' aspiring pilot Torres (Rick Gonzalez) goes up against Pilot Predator and his high-tech spaceship in a dog fight.
Trachtenberg, who made 'Killer of Killers' simultaneously with the upcoming live-action 'Predator: Badlands' (November 7), was eager to explore all three underdog stories in a painterly CG style of animation similar to Netflix's Emmy-winning 'Arcane.' Joining him as co-director was Josh Wassung, co-founder of acclaimed visualization studio The Third Floor, which has a long association with Marvel. Wassung has worked with Trachtenberg on many of his projects as well, and convinced him after some tests that his company was prepared to tackle an animated feature for the first time.
'The test results were very cool and they all had something to prove, which ignited things, and I'm thrilled that people are responding to the animation because a lot of people worked really hard,' Trachtenberg said. 'What's rewarding is that the animation medium allows for a lot of experimentation because it is so art forward that something can be both beautiful and brutal, which is an aesthetic that I'm always fascinated by and prefer to engage in.'
This allowed more daring creature design, fight choreography, camera movement, and lighting.
'We have to figure out how to get a guy in his suit and it changes a little bit, and then we can only film it for it to hold up in live action,' added Trachtenberg. 'So the designs really become stylized and move in ways we always hoped they could move. And all of that was something that we could only make in this kind of movie.'
Of all the creature designs, the Predator Brute proved the most challenging. ' Where do they go? How do they fit? How can we best use them? And when that leapt to the forefront of, 'Oh, my gosh, that's definitely the Viking era Predator,' we realized it was now going earlier even than 'Prey' was. It tasked us with figuring out it's gotta have tech, but it has to still feel pre from what 'Prey' had,' the director said.
Trachtenberg was also proud of the 'Back Biter' creature featured on the Predator planet. ' I think that was Josh's idea to put the mouth on the back of the head,' he said. 'It became my favorite idea of the whole thing. What a cool design. I would love to do more movies with just that creature.'
But linking the three stories to generational conflicts set in different periods is what most animated Trachtenberg. ' There's a line in 'Magnolia' that says, 'You may be done with the past, but the past ain't done with you.' And that is a theme that I think is the most important one for us to examine, period,' he said.
'And so whenever there's a chance to tell a story about generations dealing with things, characters trying to break cycles, and underdogs, that is what I find most compelling. So this movie really has all of those things.'
'Predator: Killer of Killers' is now streaming on Hulu.
Best of IndieWire
The Best Thrillers Streaming on Netflix in June, from 'Vertigo' and 'Rear Window' to 'Emily the Criminal'
All 12 Wes Anderson Movies, Ranked, from 'Bottle Rocket' to 'The Phoenician Scheme'
Nightmare Film Shoots: The 38 Most Grueling Films Ever Made, from 'Deliverance' to 'The Wages of Fear'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
‘Arcane,' returning from a 3-year hiatus, leads early Best Animated Program Emmy odds
The second and final season of Arcane is poised to shake up the 2025 Emmys. There are 38 submissions this year in the Best Animated Program category, which means there will again be five nominees. Leading the pack, per the Gold Derby odds, is Arcane. More from GoldDerby The 10 most Lynchian items at the David Lynch auction - and how much they sold for Best Drama Writing Emmy predictions: 'The Pitt' takes a risk by submitting 3 episodes 'Jaws' at 50: How Spielberg's movie changes 'horrified' wife of novel writer Peter Benchley Netflix's steampunk action-adventure show came on strong for its first season at the 2022 Emmys, winning Best Animated Program and three trophies for Best Individual Achievement in Animation. Three years later, it's back for Season 2, and there's no reason to think Television Academy members won't be just as enamored this time around. Arcane wrapped up major plot points in the series finale, "The Dirt Under Your Nails," in which destinies clashed in the lead-up to an all-out war. This is the episode that has been submitted for Emmy consideration. READ: The one show best positioned to beat Arcane in our odds is The Simpsons. The longest-running American scripted primetime series ever wrapped up its 36th season in May with its 790th episode. To date, The Simpsons has won 37 Emmys from 102 nominations, including 12 trophies for Best Animated Program. The comedy about the denizens of Springfield most recently prevailed in 2023 for "Treehouse of Horror XXXIII," but was beaten last year by Blue Eye Samurai, which is not currently in the running. This time around, the season premiere, "Bart's Birthday," is being entered for Emmy consideration, which serves a meta take on the show's eventual series finale. Love, Death + Robots has a near-perfect track record at the Emmys, winning 13 of its 15 nominations through the years. It won Best Short Form Animated Program for each of its first three seasons in 2019, 2021, and 2022, but is now competing against the big dogs up in the main Best Animated Program race. (There is no short form animation category this year, possibly due to a dearth of eligible submissions.) Season 4 of the anthology series streamed all 10 episodes on May 15, right at the tail end of the eligibility period. The third episode, "Spider Rose," has been submitted, and focuses on a grieving woman hellbent on revenge at the end of the galaxy. In fourth place is Bob's Burgers, a 13-time nominee in this category and two-time winner (2014 and 2017). Season 15 was split into two parts, with the first part airing at the end of 2024 and the second part airing now and through the summer. The eighth episode, "They Slug Horses, Don't They?," is being put forward for Emmy consideration, in which Tina and Louise get into an argument that escalates across several increasingly graphic "apology" cards. Invincible comes in fifth place for a nomination. Emmy voters will be judging the sixth episode of Season 3, "All I Can Say Is I'm Sorry," where a powerful new figure challenges Markus "Mark" Grayson/Invincible (voiced by Steven Yeun), and helps him to explore the concept of right vs. wrong. The superhero series streams on Prime Video, and received its first Emmy nomination last year for Sterling K. Brown for voicing Angstrom Levy. Gold Derby's Emmy odds are based on the combined forecasts of more than 4,100 people (and counting), including experts we've polled from major media outlets, editors who cover awards year-round for this website, and the mass of users who make up our biggest predictions bloc. Track the Emmy predictions by exploring all of our charts and graphs, and sound off in our TV forum. PREDICTED NOMINEES 1. Arcane — 19/10 2. The Simpsons — 71/20 3. Love, Death + Robots — 5/1 4. Bob's Burgers — 8/1 5. Invincible — 13/1 POTENTIAL SPOILERS 6. Big Mouth — 25/1 7. #1 Happy Family USA — 85/1 8. What If...? — 95/1 9. Harley Quinn — 100/1 10. Family Guy — 100/1 LONGSHOTS 11. Devil May Cry — 100/1 12. Batman: Caped Crusader — 100/1 13. Futurama — 100/1 14. Secret Level — 100/1 15. Star Trek: Lower Decks — 100/1 SIGN UP for Gold Derby's free newsletter with latest predictions Best of GoldDerby Everything to know about 'The Pitt' Season 2 Adam Brody, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, and the best of our Emmy Comedy Actor interviews Kristen Bell, Tina Fey, Bridget Everett, and the best of our Emmy Comedy Actress interviews Click here to read the full article.
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Charlie from 'Love Island USA' on Hannah and Pepe: 'How can I watch that?'
"Love Island USA" Season 7's Charlie Georgiou says the women were too loyal to Huda to vote her out of the villa, calling himself an "easy target." Charlie Georgiou is still reeling from being dumped by his fellow "Love Island USA" cast members. "It's savage; it's brutal," he tells USA TODAY. Since his villa roommates voted to oust him over the controversial Huda Mustafa and Taylor Williams, Charlie has been in a Fiji hotel room watching Netflix — and also catching up on the dozen Season 7 episodes in which the actor/model appeared. But the season's first male bombshell isn't eager to follow the most recent episodes, in which the woman he'd hit it off with, Hannah Fields, is happily moving on with Pepe Garcia-Gonzalez a day after uncontrollably sobbing over Charlie's departure. "When I was watching the episode of my departure, I saw that the next day, obviously they sent Pepe and Hannah and all the new couples on dates. And I was like, 'I can't watch that, man.' How can I watch that?" Charlie says. "Any human being wouldn't want to watch someone that they've just been establishing connections with go off and get to have this intimate experience with someone else." He adds, "Yeah, I don't want to watch the (newer) episodes. It's not a nice feeling. ... I'm just a bit worried I'll see something that makes me feel a bit (bad)." Charlie says he was the 'easy target'; the women 'weren't about to dump' Huda In Episode 12, viewers for the first time had their say in who couples up. When Hannah was paired with Pepe, Charlie was left on the chopping block alongside Taylor and Huda. Chelley, Cierra and Amaya's votes sealed Charlie's fate. This "disappointed" Charlie, who'd thought he had formed better friendships with the women. "Amaya, I always looked out for her. She cried in front of me. Me and Hannah looked after her and made her feel better, and she confided in us and we consoled her," Charlie says. "So for her to be the final executor of my time there ... the irony of it. I was like, 'No way, man, I can't believe it's you that's done it." As for Cierra, her vote to dump Charlie "let me down because ... we went in this game together. We went into the villa together. We'd have one-on-one conversations and check in on each other. He'd hoped he would sway his fellow islanders by giving his "last-ditch effort" pitch that he and Hannah had just found a new lease on their budding love. "And even that wasn't enough," Charlie says. "So I think I was always going to be the easy target." The women's loyalty to each other was the nail in the coffin, Charlie believes. "I just feel like the girls weren't about to dump (Huda)," he says. "They're not going to dump their girlfriend that they're upstairs with. They're watching her cry. They're not going to do that. They're going to go for me."
USA Today
2 hours ago
- USA Today
Estate that appeared in 'Zero Day' with Robert De Niro lists at $15 million
An estate that served as a location in Netflix miniseries "Zero Day," which featured Robert De Niro, is listed for sale at $15 million, according to the listing. Known as Rabbit Hill in Briarcliff Manor village, the more than 13,000-square-foot home is on 22 acres with Hudson River views, the listing said. The property, next to Sleepy Hollow Country Club, is within the town of Mount Pleasant, New York. In the miniseries, which aired in February 2025, De Niro portrayed a former U.S. president who is brought on to lead a commission to probe a cyber attack. Designed by architect Mott B. Schmidt for banker William S. Lambie, the home at 842 Sleepy Hollow Road was completed in 1929 and restored in 2016. It sold in 2016 for $9 million. David Turner of Compass has the listing. Stately features abound at Rabbit Hill in Briar Cliff Manor The fenced and gated property starts with a quarter-mile driveway that winds through oak trees and a naturalized landscape. A fountain is in the front-entrance courtyard. The property has sweeping lawns, perennial gardens and quiet woodlands, the listing said. Famous movie houses: Home from cult classic 'Dazed and Confused' is now for sale at $950K "Rabbit Hill is an extremely rare offering and opportunity of a historic house and property in superb condition and just 30 miles from Midtown Manhattan," the listing said. The four-level house has a stair hallway that "reveals a curved floating staircase over a herringbone brick floor," the listing said. The second level has six en-suite bedrooms, an additional guest room with private bath, and an office with full bathroom. The sunken family room includes three garden exposures through divided-light windows. There is a newly renovated kitchen. The property includes a 100-foot terrace, a large pool house and a 50-foot pool, which all face south and west toward the Hudson River and the Palisades. There is also a tennis court.
