A WORLD OF PAIN

DIRECTOR DAN TRACHTENBERG ON TAKING AN ICON OF CINEMA IN A NEW DIRECTION FOR PREDATOR BADLANDS

- WORDS: DARREN SCOTT

AN ALIEN LANGUAGE fills the air. Translated into English it's saying, "Yautja are prey to no-one, friend to no-one. Predator to all." At least we know where we stand from the outset.

It's April 2025 and SFX is at a private screening in Burbank, LA, of early footage from Predator: Badlands. The film's director Dan Trachtenberg tells us it's "equally terrifying and exciting" for him to give a first look at what he's been working on.

He needn't be worried - even in a very rough, pre-vis stage the footage looks incredible. The first 20 minutes of the movie - barely glimpsed in either of the first two trailers - takes place on Yautja Prime, homeworld of the Predators. It's a world of desert plains, rocky crags and dull oceans.

We see Dek on a beach, brandishing an ornate sword with flames running across the blade, then venturing into a huge cavern, with massive jagged rocks, where he faces his brother, Kwei in battle. "Still too small to take me on!" Kwei says in their Yautja native tongue.

It's all training for what's to come: in order to join the clan and prove himself worthy, Dek must choose his prey. It's located on Kalisk, The Death Planet. Even their father fears it, Kwei says.

But then their father arrives, dressed in an ornate, horned mask, and Dek's journey of self-discovery truly begins...

Jump forward a few months and Trachtenberg is putting the finishing touches to the movie - "right up until 6 November" he jokes - and footage has been well received by fans.

But they haven't seen anything yet, he promises.

"Our trailers have been pretty restrained. There's definitely still more surprises. Story-wise, they really just scratched the surface."

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