The Predator (film)

Predator
Current logo of the Franchise
Directed by	John McTiernan (1) Stephen Hopkins (2) Nimród Antal (3) Shane Black (4)
Produced by	John Davis (1-4) Lawrence Gordon (1-2) Joel Silver (1-2) Elizabeth Avellan (3) Robert Rodriguez (3)
Written by	Jim Thomas (1-2) John Thomas (1-2) Alex Litvak (3) Michael Finch (3) Shane Black (4) Fred Dekker (4)
Based on	Characters created by Jim Thomas John Thomas
Starring	Arnold Schwarzenegger (1) Danny Glover (2) Adrien Brody (3)
Music by	Alan Silvestri (1-2) John Debney (3)
Cinematography	Donald McAlpine (1) Peter Levy(2) Gyula Pados (3)
Edited by	Mark Helfrich (1) John F. Link (1) Mark Goldblatt (2) Bert Lovitt (2) Dan Zimmerman (3)
Production company	Amercent Films (1) American Entertainment Partners L.P. (1) Davis Entertainment Company (1-4) Lawrence Gordon Productions (1-2) Silver Pictures (1-2) Troublemaker Studios (3) Dune Entertainment (3) TSG Entertainment (4)
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date	1987 – present
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$90-93 million
Box office	$282.6 million

The Predator film series is a science fiction horror film franchise based on a race of fictional extraterrestrials created by Jim Thomas and John Thomas. Produced by 20th Century Fox, the series started in 1987 with the film Predator, which led to two sequels and novel, comic book and video game spin-offs. Related to the franchise are the Alien vs. Predator films, which combine the titular Predator with the creatures from the Alien film series.

Predator was John McTiernan's second studio film as director. The studio hired screenplay writer Shane Black to not only play a supporting role in the film, but to keep an eye on McTiernan due to the director's inexperience. Jean-Claude Van Damme was originally cast as the film's creature, the idea being that the physical action star would use his martial arts skills to make the creature an agile, ninja-esque hunter. When compared to Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers and Jesse Ventura, actors known for their bodybuilding regimes, it became apparent a more physically imposing man was needed to make the creature appear threatening. Eventually, Van Damme was removed from the film and replaced by the actor and mime artist Kevin Peter Hall.

The predator creature's design is credited to special effects artist Stan Winston. While flying to Japan with Aliens director James Cameron, Winston, who had been hired to design the Predator, was doing concept art on the flight. Cameron saw what he was drawing and said, "I always wanted to see something with mandibles". Winston then included them in his designs. Schwarzenegger recommended Winston after his experience working on The Terminator.