20th Century Studios Sequel Updates for Alien, Predator, and More
The sequels are coming, and there’s no end in sight. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, 20th Century Studios president Steve Asbell talked about some upcoming big franchise sequels the studio – which was once 20th Century Fox – will produce now that they’ve had some huge successes (and some moderate ones). Next year will see two Predator movies from Dan Trachtenberg, who directed Prey, one called Predator: Badlands starring Elle Fanning, and another Asbell won’t say much about. Predator: Badlands will be released theatrically, unlike Prey, which went straight to Hulu; he doesn’t say how the other film will be released, but considering how he emphasized that Badlands would go to theaters, I assume they’re at least considering a streaming release for the second one. He also calls Badlands “the live-action Predator film,” which makes me wonder if the other one will be animated.
Asbell also talked about the next movie in the other killer extraterrestrial franchise, Alien. More Alien movies were a given after the success of this summer’s Alien: Romulus (which I disliked a whole bunch), and while there are no locked release dates, Asbell says they’re “working on a sequel idea now” and that they’re going to get Romulus director Fede Alvarez back. The idea so far is to follow Cailee Spaeny and David Jonsson’s characters, Rain and Andy, whom Asbell calls “real highlights of the film.” But that’s not all; there’s “probably” going to be another attempt to make an Alien vs. Predator movie, but it’ll totally be different from those first two duds because it will happen “organically” and feature “characters that we fall in love with.” Sure, but this is coming from the guy who thinks the charisma vacuum of a lead and the mentally challenged android from Alien: Romulus were the bee’s knees, so that’s a meaningless statement, other than that it will feature characters from the new Alien and Predator movies.
Other than those franchises, they’re planning on another Planet of the Apes movie “in ‘27, let’s just say;” Asbell uses this as an example early on, but it seems clear there will be more Planet of the Apes movies at some point. That’s not a huge surprise, although if you look at the numbers (as Odin did here), Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes – which I liked quite a bit – was not a monster hit and probably didn’t make its money back. But the franchise had been a big moneymaker for 20th Century Fox, and one dud isn’t going to completely kill that kind of momentum unless it’s a huge bomb, especially when Disney smells potential cash. (How funny is it that the first of the new Planet of the Apes series that didn’t make money was made under Disney?) They’d also like to do a third Speed movie now that Sandra Bullock mentioned the idea, but only with her and Keanu Reeves. (Good.) The studio is also planning more Agatha Christie adaptations, presumably with Kenneth Branagh returning to direct and play Hercule Poirot, but he mentions a couple of titles that don’t feature Poirot, and they’re going to dip into Ms. Marple, too. And, of course, more Avatar films are on the way. However, there are no plans for more Die Hard, Kingsman, or Free Guy movies, and a prequel to Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World looks iffy, although there’s a script.
My reactions are mostly indifferent. I didn’t like Alien: Romulus and didn’t see Prey, and I believe the Alien and Predator franchises should’ve stopped a long time ago, but I’m not outraged over more movies, mostly because it’s hard to care anymore. They’re gonna pick those bones till they start chipping their teeth, and they make money, so whatever. I think the only way to make a good Alien vs. Predator movie is to have all the humans in the film get killed in the first thirty minutes, then have the rest be non-stop monster action, but the people who think Alien: Romulus had great characters will never do that. (The other option is to get Sigourney Weaver and Arnold Schwarzenegger back as Ripley and Dutch, then have Ripley fight a Predator while Dutch takes on the Alien Queen, but that will never happen either, even aside from timeline logistics.) I’m up for more Planet of the Apes movies, as I liked Kingdom a lot. Speed 3… meh. I love Speed, but what are they even going to do for this movie? It’d be nice to see the main characters get back together, though, and they’d have to get a spectacular villain to follow Dennis Hopper. I don’t care if they make more Kingsman movies; I liked the first one fine, but the second sucked. The King’s Man, the prequel, was my favorite of all of them, although it had some problems too. There should never be another Die Hard movie, for obvious reasons. I didn’t think much of Free Guy, so I don’t care what happens with that either. Avatar is as inevitable as the sun rising. The Agatha Christie movies they did with Kenneth Branagh are okay; I liked the original Death on the Nile with Peter Ustinov better, and while I never cared for Murder on the Orient Express, at least the first one had Sean Connery, Vanessa Redgrave, Lauren Bacall, Michael York, and Albert Finney. Master and Commander just makes me bitter because I loved the first one, but I wanted more of them with Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany, not a prequel with young actors. Maybe it’s better if that stays a one-off.
My biggest takeaway from that interview, though, is that it sucks what the movie industry has become. Did you notice I didn’t recommend you read the whole thing? That’s because it’s just the interviewer sperging over more franchise sequels like a kid in a candy store. Steve Asbell says 20th Century Studios’ output will be about half sequels and half original content, but does this guy ask a single question about an original movie? Of course not; it’s all about the next garbage Alien sequel or when we’ll see Ryan Reynolds play Ryan Reynolds in a video game again. And in a way, it’s hard to blame Asbell; he says the success of franchise sequels has allowed them to “take shots” with some original movies, and he rattles off a few, but the sequels are the big ticket items. And you can’t say nobody wants them because they tend to be big hits. But it’d be nice for the interviewer to ask a single question about the spy movie with Rami Malek or that Sam Raimi horror film. Instead, it’s just, “Are we getting another Alien vs. Predator?” Sometimes, I think we’re getting the entertainment we deserve.
Let us know what you think about these upcoming 20th Century Studios movies in the comments!
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