For every sequel that successfully clawed its way into movie theaters, there's an unmade
take that wowed on paper but floundered in development.
The Predator franchise has seen more than a few proposed sequels hit the cutting room
floor, and we break them down right here.
The concept of pitting Xenomorphs against Predators first appeared in the anthology
comic book series Dark Horse Presents in 1989.
A year later, Predator 2 further indulged a showdown with an easter egg of a Xenomorph
skull in a Predator trophy case.
But the "Alien versus Predator" concept didn't make earnest moves toward the big screen until
1991, when future Hellboy co-writer Peter Briggs penned a spec script.
Briggs' initial draft, titled The Hunt: Alien vs Predator, adheres closely to the original
Dark Horse comic penned by Randy Stradley.
Taking place off-world and in the future, Briggs' script focuses on a clan of Predators
who use planets seeded with Xenomorph eggs as hunting grounds.
As a challenge, their leader includes a queen facehugger in the batch of eggs unleashed
on a jungle planet.
As you'd imagine, this does not go well.
In 1992, Aliens magazine reported that Roland Emmerich was attached to direct, though nothing
came of it.
Emmerich and his creative partner Dean Devlin were especially keen on the idea of the Predator-Alien
hybrid only hinted at in Briggs' draft.
Fox effectively shelved the project in 1993 after producer Joe Roth left the studio.
In 2002, producer John Davis rejected a treatment penned by James DeMonaco and Kevin Fox on
the basis that he wanted to set the film on Earth and move away from the Dark Horse comics.
At the end of Predator 2, an elder Predator rewards Mike Harrigan with a trophy.
"Take it."
The gift is an antique pistol engraved with the inscription "Raphael Adolini 1715."
It's a memorable moment that hints at just how long the Predators have been terrorizing
our planet.
It also raises a whole swath of questions that, it turns out, were intended to find
answers in a sequel that never materialized.
As director/writer duo Jim and John Thomas note in the Predator 2 director's commentary,
they were constantly toying around with the idea of a Predator film set on Earth in a
time before modern weapons.
The brothers have said: "We played around on the set [with] doing
something historical.
Like, in a time where you had nothing but steam engines and flintlocks and you were
up against something like [the Predator].
That could be fun."
The brothers' brainstorming sessions never materialized into anything concrete.
And yet, while we were robbed of a big-screen Predator period piece, that didn't stop Dark
Horse Comics from picking up the Thomas brothers' enticing engraved pistol and running with
it.
Published in July 1996 and written by Henry Gilroy, Predator: 1718 tells the story of
Raphael Adolini, his pistol, and how the Predators in Predator 2 came to acquire it.
Set in the Bermuda Triangle, the comic paints Adolini as a pirate captain suddenly faced
with a rebellious crew and an unlikely alien ally.
Before earning his first screenwriting credit on 2010's Predators, Alex Litvak worked at
20th Century Fox in the 1990s.
He’s talked about how the studio's attitude at the time was that you couldn't make another
Predator movie without the original film's star: Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Responding to this limitation, Litvak pitched a sequel that envisioned the triumphant return
of Schwarzenegger's Major Alan "Dutch" Schaefer.
Litvak's pitch took place directly after the events of the original Predator.
As the script tells it, the whole affair from the first film has been classified and Dutch
is living out his days in exile.
Then, a Predator ship crashes at a remote location and the government taps Dutch to
lead a spry team of commandos to investigate.
When they finally reach the ship, a group of Predators emerge with one target: Dutch.
He's the one that got away.
And they've come back to claim their prize.
As Litvak explains, the pitch was a pointed attempt to seduce Schwarzenegger.
Whether Litvak's proposed script even made it to the actor is unclear.
In any case, the studio resolved that Schwarzenegger was still off the table and the pitch never
saw the light of day.
While waiting to work on Desperado in the early 1990s, Robert Rodriguez wrote a script
for a third Predator film.
An unconfirmed copy of his script has since made the rounds on the internet, and it is,
to put it mildly, completely bananas.
The story begins on an alien planet, where a group of humans outfitted in Predator armor
attack a Spanish galleon.
The cloaked attackers overwhelm the ship and transport their captive, Dutch from the first
film, to a prison planet.
The planet also happens to be a gladiatorial training ground for "teen" Predators, replete
with, among other things, human-alien hybrids.
Rodriguez approached Arnold Schwarzenegger about returning to his original role as Dutch.
Supposedly there was even a role in the script written for Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Rodriguez's script would ultimately morph into 2010's Predators, thanks to an extensive
overhaul by Alex Litvak and Michael Finch.
However, at the time, Fox passed on the script because Rodriguez's sequel was simply too
ambitious and expensive.
While working on 2007's Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem as a visual effects consultant, Liam
O'Donnell drafted a sequel treatment.
O'Donnell's idea for Aliens vs. Predator 3 took place on a future Earth ravaged by climate
change where mankind has reverse-engineered advanced interstellar travel with technology
recovered from Predator weapons.
However, the fuel that powers this spacefaring tech is derived from a rare mineral only found
in southern Africa, the last continent free from the vice grip of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation.
The warming of the planet causes the release of the original Alien vs. Predator queen from
her icy tomb.
And the film ends with a third act three-way fight between a Predator, Alien, and human.
The treatment was ultimately scrapped for two reasons.
First, as O'Donnell puts it: After the addition of the Predator home planet to Requiem, there
was an assumption that if they did a third movie, it had to be in space.
Second: Upon its release, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem failed miserably at the box office,
basically scrapping any hope for a sequel.
In 2015, Vincenzo Natali tweeted a slew of concept art for, among other things, a tentative
Predator reboot.
The visual pitch offers a brief glimpse into what we could have seen: An expressionistic
jungle war zone, a sleek and spiky Predator, and a brutal gladiatorial showdown.
Natali pitched his take on what would ultimately become Predators with nothing but a logline:
"Predators hunt humans on their planet."
Natali has elaborated on his visual treatment: "When I was called in to pitch, there was
nothing.
There was no script.
There was only the notion that this was going to take place on a Predator planet.
I think there was a Dangerous Game aspect to it with humans being hunted by Predators.
I met with Robert Rodriguez and some executives, and I just did a whole bunch of drawings."
Nothing ever came from that bunch of drawings.
And that's a shame, because the idea of the director of Cube and Splice taking a stab
at a Predator movie sounds like a match made in sci-fi horror heaven.
In 2010, director Nimród Antal and producer Robert Rodriguez revitalized the franchise
with Predators, an action-packed sequel set on an alien planet turned hunting ground.
The honor-obsessed aliens use a planetary game preserve to test their abilities, hunting
down humans as well as creatures from other planets.
By the end, only two survivors remain.
As the pair catch their breath at the end of the film, a new hunt begins, and our heroes
realize that they have to escape.
"Now, let's find a way off this f--king planet."
Despite its obvious sequel setup, a Predators follow-up has yet to materialize.
Which makes co-writer Alex Litvak's enticing proposal for a direct sequel an absolute knife
twist.
Litvak has described his pitch for Predators 2 as "Die Hard on a Predator ship."
In Litvak's sequel, Royce and Isabelle let the Predators catch them.
They are then brought aboard the ship that the aliens use to transport people to the
planet.
They break out of their cells and as they attempt to seize control of the ship, Die
Hard in space ensues.
Eventually, our heroes make it back to Earth.
And then, per Litvak: "We land and realize it's the future!
All along we thought this was happening now, but what if these guys have been on ice for
300 years?
The hatch opens, and the Space Marines come in!"
This move would have once again merged the Alien and Predator franchises under one roof.
As Litvak tells it, although 20th Century Fox was enthusiastic, his proposed sequel
never got off the ground.
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