The Predator: How Shane Black's sequel plans to capture the spirit of the original

The Nice Guys helmer spills on how the new sequel plans to revive the franchise

Could anyone have guessed back in 1987, that the very man who played Hawkins in Predator would come to direct one of its sequels?

Likely not, but that's just part of the unpredictable universe of Hollywood filmmaking, isn't it? Writer/Director/Actor Shane Black has come a long way since his Hawkins role, penning the iconic Lethal Weapon; all before transitioning into direction with the likes of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and The Nice Guys.

While speaking to London Live's brand new programme, London Film Club, Black revealed his vision for the upcoming take on the classic franchise; which has already been touted as a canonical sequel, though there's hope it will manage to utterly reinvent the classic franchise.

"Back in the original, there was a real sense of mystery, I thought," Black stated. "And discovery, when this thing came to Earth. Then it sort of became over the years, with the iconic makeup - you could almost find a good-looking Predator by going to Comic Con - it had lost its lustre; in the sense that it was no longer mysterious in the way the alien in Ridley Scott's first Alien was mysterious."

"If we could even capture half of that creepiness that he had and, also, keep some of the humour of the first one, too; I'm just keeping the torch for what I think was the better version. This one's supposed to feel like: get your tickets a month in advance, you know its coming, it's exciting to you in the way hopefully that Prometheus or the Alien prequel will be."

"So, we're trying to up the stakes that way; just making it full of ideas and mystery," he concluded. It's still very early days for the production; with details of the sequel's settings and characters currently on lockdown, though a UK release date of 2 March 2018 has already been announced.

To watch the full interview with Shane Black, and hear how Ryan Gosling convinced Russell Crowe to do The Nice Guys, you can catch the debut episode of London Film Club; today on London Live, at 7.30PM.