Iron Man 3 helmer Shane Black is directing a new Predator movie, the Doc Savage movie and has The Nice Guys debuting today.
Black participated in a Reddit AMA where he offered the following about the films, Marvel and Robert Downey Jr.
On the new Predator (due out March 2, 2018):
This new reimagining of |The Predator will be set in |Present Day — which is to say, 2018; and so the futuristic events of Predators have not yet occurred. |We’re on earth, the time is now…
On a potential Alien Vs. Predator movie:
Ridley (the best man for the job) has taken the helm of the Alien franchise, and I’m frankly more interested in watching his work as an awed observer; watching Ridley to me is like going to school.
On Marvel:
I love the Marvel folk. They’re making the best superhero movies around, largely because they’re not elaboately calculated products; they’re labors of love for these guys. They grew up on the shit.
Marvel was an education and a half. I remember I was a bit headspun, early on, trying to find out how exactly I fit in, when Joss Whedon approached me. Sensing my distress, he said, “You don’t have to keep ahold of every moving part. Trust the machine.” And so I took the cotton out of my ears, put it in my mouth, and proceeded to LEARN from the most efficient, well-oiled superhero delivery system in history. Everyone should be so lucky.
On Doc Savage and Dwayne Johnson:
Now, you’re talking. Doc Savage was — and is — as much a part of my creative life as any other influence (with the possible exception of The Cricket in Times Square, oddly). With 182 stories in the original canon to choose from (I confess to having only read 107) it becomes nigh impossible to pick any one book, so we have to synthesize the elements — the protypical TYPE of tale — that best sums up the entire bloody mess; not just an episode wiuthin the genre. It’s really daunting, frankly. As for Duane — Google “James Bama – Doc Savage” and look at the images which assailed me from the book rack at Shop-Rite whn I was young. The Rock seems very insertable, doesn’t he?
On casting Robert Downey Jr. in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang:
Downey was the man. Period. Down-at-his-heels, previously uninsurable, the whole deal — f— it. I trusted him. I was so right. That said, the movie tanked; but I’m still intensely proud of it, and so SO grateful for what Downey and Kilmer brought. Lightning in a bottle.
Note: Here is a James Bama Doc Savage cover:
