‘Predator: Badlands’: Dan Trachtenberg Recalls James Cameron Said He Wasn’t Convinced Ambitious Installment Would Work Until Screening A Nearly Finalized Cut

James Cameron is the modern king of genre and blockbusters, so when he’s willing to give filmmakers his advice, notes, or takes on their films, you have to imagine that sparks all sorts of anxiety and pressure when he’s ready to share his thoughts. It wasn’t too long ago that Cameron told Fede Álvarez he “loved” what he did with “Alien: Romulus” and now “Predator: Badlands” helmer Dan Trachtenberg shared his own experience with Cameron while speaking with The Hollywood Reporter after he praised his previous installment, “Prey,” and gave impressions for his latest entry in the “Predator” franchise.

“[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 & 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.”

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“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. 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 crap, 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,” Trachtenberg said of Cameron’s candid comments after seeing a nearly completed version of the movie.

Of course, Cameron is closely associated with the “Alien” franchise thanks to his landmark sci-fi action sequel “Aliens,” but had been trying to develop a fifth film with Ridley Scott (an expectation that Scott would direct and Cameron taking on scripting/producing duties, potentially alongside “Alien Resurrection” scribe Joss Whedon), only for the project to get scrapped in favor of Paul W.S. Anderson‘s “Alien Vs Predator,” which originally drew ire from Cameron, but he eventually came around to easing back on that criticism (at the time, he delcared he’d never touch the franchise again). So, we have to assume picking Cameron’s brain on their ideas (may have included adding Weyland-Yutani and their off-world colonization efforts, and a bunch of synthetics on the alien planet at the center of the story) made them nervous, given the minor crossover elements with the “Alien” universe going on and not including human characters. However, it sounds like Cameron was ultimately won over.

For whatever it’s worth, we’re still waiting to see how global audiences react to the new PG-13 film (the first time the Predator has appeared in a film with that rating since “AVP”) and if they’ll announce more theatrical installments, or will indeed bring back characters like Amber Midthunder‘s Naru from “Prey” or Arnold Schwarzenegger‘s Dutch that debuted back in the original 1987 flick for new adventures (there has been some chatter, but nothing official just yet).

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We’ll likely know more in the near future once the dust settles on the box office numbers for “Predator: Badlands,” as it debuts in theaters on November 7, and you can read The Playlist’s review of it right here.