'Prey' producer says Native American representation 'shifts Hollywood paradigm'

Prey producer Jhane Myers says the Native American representation in the movie has the potential to "shift that Hollywood paradigm" around depictions of Native people.

The producer, who has worked on numerous projects involving Native American characters, praised the representation on both sides of the camera in the new Predator film.

Directed by 10 Cloverfield Lane filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg, the movie is set in the 1700s and follows a tribe of Comanche hunters who must defend themselves after the arrival of a Predator.

Prey will stream exclusively on Disney+ from 5 August.

Video transcript

TOM BEASLEY: The complete language of, that must have been so exciting for you to get to produce that knowing that this is a big blockbuster film that people can see entirely in Comanche.

JHANE MYERS: Yes, and the fact that it is a big film, this is the first time that there's ever been a film in its entirety in my language and Comanche and then also for Native American films, this is the first time that there's ever been a brand new movie done in a native language. So I think this kind of shifts that Hollywood paradigm when they think about native content and it also shows that it can be done. And it can be done on the large scale.

TOM BEASLEY: And I guess there could be criticism of the fact that ultimately, as much as this is a very Native American focused story, the director is a White guy. Was that something that you ever had misgivings about?

JHANE MYERS: Not at all because when I read the script and then when I interviewed with Dan and talked to Dan, Dan's heart is in the right place. It doesn't matter that he's not native because predominantly, the whole cast is Native American, and not only did we have people, because when people think of Native people, we're always in front of the camera, but look, you have a Native producer and then every-- we had an internship program. So within every department, there were Native people.

And some of those people are still working in the industry in Calgary, in and around Calgary. So that was amazing. And so, we had, gosh, I guess Native people and everything. Like working with our composer, I had some Comanche people, and then I also had the world famous artist or musician Robert Mirabal.

I mean, in every section, we had Native people so it was very hands on with Natives. So I don't think that Dan had this vision and then he had the brilliance to let us fill in.