Last night, news broke that 20th Century Fox was reviving its Predator franchise with Shane Black attached to direct and write the treatment, while Fred Dekker (The Monster Squad) would handle scripting duties. While it didn’t come as a surprise that Fox wanted to put together another entry in one of its staple film series, it was excellent to hear that Black, who wrote and directed Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang and Iron Man 3, would be steering the ship. A veteran screenwriter, Black has developed a signature tone and style that is a welcome reprieve from generic studio actioners, and he proved himself to be a strong director with the incredible Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang then showed he could handle a massive budget on Iron Man 3.

While Black’s Predator film was initially reported as being a reboot, we recently got in touch with the filmmaker who clarified that he and Dekker are actually envisioning an “inventive sequel” with this iteration, which is to say it’s really not a reboot at all. Hit the jump to read on.

While the initial report said that Black’s new Predator film would be a reboot, Black tells us that he and Dekker see the project as definitely not a reboot, “As far as Fred and I are concerned anyway,” Black said, adding “Why start over, when you’ve all this rich mythology yet to mine?” Black said he doesn’t like reboots generally, but can “really get behind inventive sequels”, noting that he likes “the idea of expanding and exploring the existing Predator mythology, rather than hitting the restart button.” He went on to say that Dekker, who’s writing the screenplay, is “perfect” for the project, adding the two had a blast writing the screenplay for The Monster Squad together. Indeed, the result of their previous collaboration makes the prospect of the new Predator film even more enticing.

More often than not, a reboot is a lazy way of avoiding the hard work of coming up with a new idea, and instead choosing to use the blueprint of what came before. What Black and Dekker have planned for Predator, however, sounds like something fresh yet in step with the spirit of the original films, and that’s worth getting excited about. Just exactly what portions of the Predator mythology will be mined for this new film are under wraps for now, but I’m eager to see what surprises Black and Dekker have up their sleeves.