The Predator filming begins today, R rating confirmed

Director Shane Black has taken to Twitter to confirm not only that shooting has begun on The Predator, but that the sequel will most definitely have an R rating. The blood-spattered Predator filming will take place in Vancouver.

UPDATE: Black has also posted a picture of the cast, which you can view in full in the gallery below! “Partial cast… beautiful human beings, good people. Also, killers,” Black wrote.

Monday… the hunt is on. pic.twitter.com/4tScRCnhGA — Shane Black (@BonafideBlack) February 18, 2017

And, just to be clear… PG-13 is for pussies. Spines bleed… a lot. — Shane Black (@BonafideBlack) February 18, 2017

The cast includes Boyd Holbrook (Narcos, Logan), Olivia Munn (X-Men: Apocalypse), Trevante Rhodes (Moonlight), Keegan-Michael Key (Keanu, Key & Peele), Thomas Jane (The Punisher), Jacob Tremblay (Room) and Sterling K. Brown (The People vs. O.J. Simpson, This is Us).

Details on the film are still under wraps, but producer John Davis previously said: “The writing is so fresh, the perspective is so fresh. I’m telling you, you’re going to get something you don’t expect and you’re going to say, ‘This is the most entertaining way to reinvent a franchise.’”

“I’m currently working on Predator, it’s not a sequel,” Holbrook said recently. “Shane Black has made something totally new, somehow keeping within the realm of ‘Predator’ [while also being] absolutely new in terms of the story that we’re talking about today, and rooted in something real. It’s real fresh. I don’t think you’re going to see [Arnold] Schwarzenegger. It would kind of make it a gimmick. It’s horror, science-fiction and a western.”

Despite this statement, Black, who wrote the script with his Monster Squad co-writer Fred Dekker, has confirmed that the film remains in the continuity of the first two movies and isn’t a full reboot of the series. He said there is a reference in the script as to why the film has a singular title.

The original Predator was directed by John McTiernan and starred Arnold Schwarzenegger as the leader of a United States special forces team that comes under attack from an alien entity that prizes the thrill of the hunt above all else. It was followed by a direct sequel, Predator 2, in 1990 before crossing over with Fox’s Alien franchise for two additional sequels, Alien vs. Predator and AvP: Requiem. In 2010, Nimrod Antal helmed a reboot with a new feature, Predators.

The Predator will be released in theaters on February 9, 2018.

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