{"id":123894,"date":"2025-11-08T02:18:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T02:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/123894\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T02:18:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T02:18:06","slug":"why-does-james-cameron-get-a-special-thank-you-in-predator-badlands-geektyrant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/123894\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Does James Cameron Get a Special Thank You in PREDATOR: BADLANDS \u2014 GeekTyrant"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you watch Predator: Badlands<\/a>, you might notice a surprising name pop up in the credits\u2026 James Cameron<\/a>. He\u2019s never really been involved with the Predator franchise, but his creative fingerprints have always lingered around the edges of it. <\/p>\n

From Aliens to The Terminator to Avatar, Cameron\u2019s work has shaped much of the cinematic DNA that inspired filmmakers like Dan Trachtenberg<\/a>, the director behind Badlands.<\/p>\n

So how did the filmmaker end up with a thank-you in the credits of a Predator movie? The story runs a lot deeper than coincidence.<\/p>\n

While Predator: Badlands was filming in New Zealand, Cameron was nearby working on Avatar: Fire and Ash. That proximity led to some unexpected mentorship. <\/p>\n

\u201cI consider myself very lucky that we were making movies at the same company,\u201d Trachtenberg said in an interview with io9<\/a>. \u201cWe collaborate with the same executives, and he saw Prey and loved it. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo when we were heading down to New Zealand to shoot, he invited me down to Wellington to hang out on [the Avatar 3] set and in his edit bay. And I divulged all my anxiety about making this movie and the methodology that we were doing, which was going to be very new for the franchise and certainly very new to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

That \u201cnew methodology\u201d Trachtenberg mentions is one of Badlands\u2019 coolest moves as it turns a Yautja, the Predator species, into a hero. On top of that, the alien\u2019s face was brought to life entirely through CGI based on the performance of Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi, a technique Cameron has perfected through years of motion-capture innovation on Avatar.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen we reconvened for dinner, and we drove separately,\u201d Trachtenberg continued. \u201cAnd when he sat down, he said, \u2018I was thinking about what you\u2019re doing on the way over here and I think it\u2019s going to work.\u2019 And that was insane. He put so much wind in my sails to bring back up to Auckland and tell the whole crew.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cameron\u2019s involvement didn\u2019t end there. After filming wrapped, Trachtenberg turned to him one more time for feedback. <\/p>\n

\u201cThen, just a few months ago, we had a cut movie of the movie that was almost done, not quite, and I wanted to get his input before we put the finishing touches on,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd he wrote a note back that said, \u2018I have to be honest, when I first heard about what you\u2019re doing, I didn\u2019t think it was going to work, but holy crap, it really worked.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if he didn\u2019t remember the first thing or if he just knows exactly what someone in my shoes needs to hear when they hear it. So it was just amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

That kind of feedback from Cameron, the guy who reinvented sci-fi filmmaking multiple times over, obviously mean\u2019t a lot. And it sounds like his confidence gave Trachtenberg and his team the creative push they needed to take some big swings with Predator: Badlands.<\/p>\n

Fans will soon see what all the fuss is about when Predator: Badlands hits theaters later this week. If Cameron\u2019s reaction is anything to go by, audiences might actually end up loving what this movie delivers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When you watch Predator: Badlands, you might notice a surprising name pop up in the credits\u2026 James Cameron.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156,409,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-123894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}