Battleworld

The man in charge of the Predator franchise on his plan for (other) world domination

- DARREN SCOTT

DIRECTOR DAN TRACHTENBERG is, as you might have suspected, one of us. The former Geekdrome podcast presenter is a self-proclaimed nerd and at the moment the man holding the reins to the Predator franchise is very animated about headlining at Geek Glastonbury - San Diego Comic-Con's Hall H.

"I went on an 11-year stretch going to Comic-Con, but I haven't been for quite a few years, so I'm very excited to be part of Hall H," he tells Red Alert, promising that Predator will be represented with "cool stuff" next month. "I was in there when the Avengers assembled, I was in there for the pen stabbing [prior to the Resident Evil: Afterlife panel in 2010], I was two rows behind it. I was there for the big Tron reveal, that was insane. Some of my most cherished nerd memories are being there in the audience. So it's going to be a real special thing to be up on stage with this movie. I'm very excited about what we'll be there with..."

When we catch up, he's days away from the first festival screenings of Predator: Killer Of Killers - a surprise animated movie that's now available on Disney+ - and "knee-deep in post-production" on his other movie in the franchise, Predator: Badlands, which hits cinemas in November. "We have half-day long - soon to be full-day long - VFX reviews, and continue to make it cooler and cooler and cooler. So I'm releasing one movie and then really in the trenches on the other..."

He laughs when asked if he'll ever make two movies at the same time again. "They say that when women give birth that something is released that makes them forget the pain of it and makes them want to have a kid again. I suspect I will have the same thing because right now I am like, 'No way!'

"But the same thing happened when I finished Prey," he says of the 2022 film which brought the 10 Cloverfield Lane director to the arena of the Yautja.