James Cameron didn’t think Predator: Badlands would work, director Dan Trachtenberg reveals
James Cameron was initially apprehensive about Predator: Badlands, but was eventually sold on the movie after watching it, director Dan Trachtenberg has said.
James Cameron didn’t initially think Predator: Badlands would work, director Dan Trachtenberg has revealed.
The 44-year-old filmmaker had approached the Avatar director, 71, about taking the franchise in a new direction with his sci-fi movie - with a Yautja being the main protagonist rather than the antagonist - and while Cameron originally wasn’t keen on the idea, he eventually came around to it after watching Predator: Badlands.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Trachtenberg said: “I consider myself incredibly blessed, and it’s probably largely thanks to both of us making movies with the same collaborators at 20th Century.
“[Cameron] saw Prey and loved it, and so we had been in touch. And when I went down to New Zealand to start prepping Badlands, he invited me over to see what he was doing down in Wellington.
“So I spent some time on the stage with him and in the edit bay [of Avatar: Fire and Ash]. In the edit bay, I told him the crazy thing that we were doing, and the crazy way we were doing it, and how it would be very new and new to the franchise and new to me as a filmmaker.
“Then we drove separately to dinner, and when he came in and sat down, he said, ‘I was just thinking about what you’re doing, and I think it’s going to work.’ So all that wind in my sails carried me back up to Auckland to tell my crew.
“The blessing of that guy - who has taken on some pretty impossible odds and pulled them off - was absolutely incredible.”
Although Cameron was impressed with Predator: Badlands, The Terminator director later admitted to Trachtenberg he originally wasn’t sure he could pull it off.
Trachtenberg continued: “We then shared the cut with him when it was not quite done. There were a few specific questions that I had in mind, and I wanted to see if he could give us any helpful notes.
“So he saw the movie a couple months back, and he said, 'I have to be honest with you. When I first heard what you were doing, I did not think it was going to work. But holy c***, you pulled it off.'
“He either did not remember that first conversation that meant a whole lot to me, or he really does know what someone in my position needs to hear to get things done. I think it’s more the latter.
“So he put wind in our sails at just the right times, and I had to make sure we gave him a special thanks.”
Predator: Badlands - which hits cinemas on November 7, 2025 - follows young hunter Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) after he has been cast out of his clan and sent to a remote planet, where he forms an unlikely alliance with Weyland-Yutani synthetic Thia (Elle Fanning).
Together, the pair search for the ultimate adversary.
