Confirmed: The Rebooted Predator Movie Will Be 'R-Rated'

Action fans can relax – Shane Black has confirmed that the new, rebooted ‘Predator’ movie will be firmly 'R-rated’.

Speaking to Den of Geek, the screenwriter and director explained that the plan is to make the movie series 'new and fresh’ once again.

- Cannes comedian draws gasps with Woody Allen ‘rape joke’
- Spud spotted on Trainspotting 2 set
- X-Men: Apocalypse is getting slated

“Hopefully it will be a mixture where it’s an odd adventure, there’s a noir to it, but we’re trying to event-ize the Predator and make it new and fresh again,” he said.

“There’s also a sensibility and a sense of brooding menace and we can have fun but there’s an element of horror that’s unmistakable in The Predator.

“I don’t want to have to compromise it by just treating it like a popcorn film. That said, I hope there’s some popcorn viewing available in it, too. It’s an R-rated popcorn movie, which is the best kind to me.”

Fans of the Predator movies, which began with John McTiernan’s classic alien actioner in 1987, have become increasingly disillusioned with them over the years, peaking with the decision to make 'Alien Vs. Predator’ in 2004 a PG-13.

“I made a condition of my participation with Predator that it be the same rating as the first movie, and the first movie was Rated R,” Black went on.

“In other words, I don’t want to cut away every time the Predator does something violent. I was watching the American version of 'The Grudge’, which was PG-13, and I remember being so frustrated by the fact that everything that was scary in the Japanese version, they had to cut away from in the PG-13 American version.”

Black not only provided some uncredited script edits for the original movie, but also played the role of gawky soldier Hawkins.

He is revered for his action chops, having written 'Lethal Weapon’ and 'Last Action Hero’ back in the day, and more recently written and directed 'Iron Man 3’ and helmed current movie 'The Nice Guys’ with Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling.

So whether a reboot of the series is strictly necessary, it would seem that it is in arguably the best hands it could be.

He’s also spoken about the plans for the design of the new iteration of the remorseless alien hunter.

“It’s not to ‘improve,’ it’s make it fun, make it different, make it organically different,” he told SuperHeroHype.

“So what’s the extension of it that makes sense, that’s exciting? There have been a lot of changes to Stan [Winston]’s design over the years. These different Predator movies have done different things.

“Ultimately it’s not about design to me, it’s about the story you want to tell. There are people who are always going to agonize over Iron Man, what colour his suit is. Maybe this weapon does a new thing, but if the story is not good I don’t give a sh*t what colour the suit is.

“In ‘The Predator’ we’re doing a lot of upgrades to what you would consider to be the traditional Predator technology and look, but hopefully the story is what’s going to drag people in, not just the attention to the minutiae.”

No news on when the movie might start shooting, or even casting, but we shall bring it to you when there is.

Image credits: Rex Features/Fox/AP