Posted in: 20th Century Studios, Fox, Hulu, Movies | Tagged: 20th century fox, 20th century studios, arnold schwarzenegger, hulu, john davis, predator, prey

Prey Producer John Davis Reflects on Predator Franchise Creation

If there's someone who's reaped the benefits of the Predator franchise, it's producer John Davis, who was there from the very beginning since the 1987 film directed by John McTiernan and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Four sequels and two spinoffs later, which includes the most recent and critically-acclaimed prequel in Hulu's Prey, the franchise is as relevant as ever, with him producing every single one. Davis spoke to Variety about how the first film came to be from writer duo and brothers Jim and John Thomas, assembling the cast and bringing McTiernan onboard.

"The Thomas brothers snuck the script onto the Fox lot and under somebody's door," Davis said. "We got there on Monday, and there was this script. I was an executive at the time, and I had been working with Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was a really good friend of mine. We were always both trying to figure out how we could work together. And so I'm the executive on this movie at Fox, and what happened is I became a producer. I auditioned to become a producer. And Arnold says, 'Well, you're becoming a producer now. You need to actually produce this movie and come to the jungle with me. Let's go make this.'"

Predator was Davis' first as a producer. "We'd be in the jungle, and [Arnold's] chef would make like smoked salmon on toast. I'm thinking, 'This is crazy cool! I should do this the rest of my life!' You hang out with all these people in the jungle all day, and you're making this movie, and you're doing these cool action scenes. And you're figuring out how to crash a helicopter, and you're sweating with all these guys." Davis also participated in Schwarzenegger's group workout routines.

"We ran out of money, so we didn't shoot the end," Davis remembers. "And then a new head of the studio, Leonard Goldberg, came in. And he saw three-quarters of the movie, and he said, 'Okay, it's pretty good. Why don't you guys just go finish it.' And I met [John] McTiernan somehow. I saw one movie he had done before, and I said, 'This is the guy to direct this movie.'" Joining Schwarzenegger in the film in the cast were Carl Weathers, Kevin Peter Hall, Shane Black, Bill Duke, Sonny Landham, and Jesse Ventura.

"[McTiernan] never read any actors. His process was, 'I can tell in a conversation,'" Davis explains. "That conversation would enlighten him to whether or not the actor was right for the movie. And at the end of the day, we had two governors in the movie." For more on Davis talking about the continued pop culture impact of the Yautja, the alien species on which Predator is based, why Schwarzenegger didn't return for the 1990 follow-up, further sequels, and how director Dan Trachtenberg approached him about Prey, you can check out the interview here. Prey is available to stream on Hulu.

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