Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) and Thia (Elle Fanning) in Predator: Badlands. Photo \/ \u00a9 2025 20th Century Studios<\/p>\n
While some productions are public knowledge, others are closely guarded, filmed under mysterious working titles with everyone sworn to secrecy. Predator: Badlands was one of them. Very few people knew about the latest instalment in the famous science fiction franchise, beyond the people working on the production. <\/p>\n
Executive producer Ben Rosenblatt isn\u2019t new to science fiction \u2013 he\u2019s worked on Star Wars, Star Trek and Snowpiercer, as well as the last outing in the Predator franchise, Prey \u2013 but even he was surprised about how little had leaked from the production. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really trying to surprise everyone,\u201d he told us. <\/p>\n
We were cloistered in a room and, after signing non-disclosure agreements, he revealed details of the plot. Asking our group what we knew already was met with a chorus of \u201cElle Fanning\u201d (her involvement had been confirmed by Variety in June 2024). She\u2019s the backpack in question; Thia, one of the Weyland-Yutani corporation\u2019s synths (synthetic humans), who was \u201csevered in half\u201d, explained Rosenblatt. <\/p>\n
She\u2019s strapped to the protagonist Dek for much of the film. His mission is to \u201cfind, kill and bring back the unkillable beast\u201d to prove himself; hers is to find her legs. <\/p>\n
Realising Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi has the X factor <\/p>\n
Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi as Dek in Predator: Badlands. Photo \/ \u00a9 2025 20th Century Studios<\/p>\n
It can\u2019t be easy to come across as charming and warm when dressed in the intimidating, otherworldly attire of the Predators, but even though Schuster-Koloamatangi had come straight from set to talk to us, his charisma was palpable. We had a first glimpse of it in 2021\u2019s The Panthers where his performance as the young, idealistic Will \u2018Ilolahia was a breakout role. Predator: Badlands is his biggest and most physical role to date, and he said it required a month of hard training with Jacob Tomuri and his team prior to filming to be ready for the action. <\/p>\n
Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi in The Panthers.<\/p>\n
Taking on a big international production and physical role was a \u201cbit hectic\u201d, he told the Herald, but not a huge departure from his past work. \u201cI feel like if you\u2019ve been on one movie set you\u2019ve been on all of them, so in terms of the actual job, it was fine,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying a non-human really tested my acting skills though, everything was different.\u201d <\/p>\n
That was the hardest part, but he really enjoyed the process of expanding his repertoire and embodying the character physically. <\/p>\n
\u201cBecoming something totally different to what I am was really cool.\u201d <\/p>\n
Witnessing Elle Fanning in action <\/p>\n
Elle Fanning stars in Predator: Badlands. Photo \/ \u00a9 2025 20th Century Studios<\/p>\n
There had been rumours of Elle Fanning being spotted around Auckland during filming, and she was there in the flesh the day we visited, shooting a scene in a crashed Yautja spaceship. <\/p>\n
Tracer lights on the craft illuminated the set as she picked her way through the sloping vehicle, clad in the Ngila Dickson-designed white jumpsuit. The actress plays synths Thia and Tessa, identical counterparts, and she looked luminous, even in the raw footage. <\/p>\n
Fanning\u2019s a smooth operator (walking on set is harder than it looks – we tried), and she was reportedly very \u201con board\u201d with the whole production, according to hair and makeup designer Susie Glass, who told us how Fanning drove from Auckland to the shoot location at 1am on her day off for a makeup test. <\/p>\n
Seeing a Weyland-Yutani spaceship <\/p>\n
For anyone who\u2019s grown up watching Alien, the prospect of setting foot in a Weyland-Yutani asset is a bucket-list. It\u2019s surreal to see the logo in the flesh, wandering past the hold of a Weyland-Yutani spaceship, where a sweatshirt was incongruously slung on a yellow rail by the airlock. (The company\u2019s presence, and that of its synths, is an explicit crossover between the Alien and Predator franchises.) <\/p>\n
Director Dan Trachtenberg on the set Predator: Badlands. Photo \/ Nicola Dove, \u00a9 2024 20th Century Studios<\/p>\n
Discovering the predator is the hero <\/p>\n
Another surprise. Dek\u2019s the protagonist. Rosenblatt said they wanted audiences to feel for Dek, see him as a hero. Something of an outcast, he\u2019s small compared to the rest of the Yautja species \u2013 the predators of the franchise lore \u2013 and needs to prove himself. He also needs to emote; easier said than done when there\u2019s his species\u2019 infamous mandables to deal with. <\/p>\n
The solution to that was Weta Digital, which used CGI to animate Dek\u2019s face. Schuster-Koloamatangi\u2019s facial expressions had to be exaggerated, which was different to what he was used to. \u201cA lot of acting is subtle, and I still incorporate that with Dek, but everything else has to be bigger.\u201d <\/p>\n
Meeting Alec Gillis <\/p>\n
An FX expert and creature designer, Alec Gillis\u2019 lengthy film credits span everything from Death Becomes Her to Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and he was part of the team that did the very first Alien movie. <\/p>\n
Rosenblatt called him \u201cthe godfather of the franchise\u201d, and it was Gillis himself who demonstrated the combination of physical and digital effects they were using to bring the film\u2019s many alien creatures to life. <\/p>\n
Seeing the local film industry do what they do best <\/p>\n
The set was efficient and orderly in a way that boggles your mind. There was also plenty of Kiwi ingenuity. The spacecraft we saw was brought to life through old and new techniques, including casting and the more traditional carving. The boat builders on the crew lent their unique skills to the crafting of the spaceship. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s better for us to go and speak to glassmakers, cabinetmakers, people that create these surfaces for real, and introduce them to the film industry,\u201d explained production designer Ra Vincent. \u201cA lot of industry people come from real-world backgrounds.\u201d <\/p>\n
Rosenblatt was effusive with praise for the Kiwi crew. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey have such a core passion for what they do, and a care for being positive and being productive,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd a collective ambition to care for one another.\u201d <\/p>\n
The production spent 30 days shooting in remote locations around the country. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was in awe of every moment we were there,\u201d Rosenblatt said. \u201cTo be in such a beautiful country, with such wonderful people, but then to constantly be surprised by the places you go\u2026 It creates an overall feeling of otherworldliness and magic; it\u2019s hard not to get swept up in it.\u201d <\/p>\n
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