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With this year's Overlook Film Festival lurking around the corner in New Orleans April 3rd–6th, the festival has announced its anticipated full schedule, including free horror trivia that Daily Dead is proud to sponsor for the third year in a row!

Hosted by Shudder's Sam Zimmerman and once again taking place at B Mac's, horror trivia will kick off at 4:30pm on Friday, April 4th, and we look forward to having Daily Dead readers join us at the scary good event!

Other additional programming includes the short films of David Lynch, the return of the immersive experience Undersigned, and Phantom Follies with Zabrecky: A Midnight Spook Show & Film Spectacular followed by a 65th anniversary screening of William Castle's 13 Ghosts in Illusion-o!

We have the official press release with complete details on the full schedule below, be sure to visit Overlook Film Festival's official website for more information,...

As if the upcoming edition of the Overlook Film Festival , taking place April 3 – April 6 in New Orleans, Louisiana, wasn’t stacked enough, the festival announced today the full schedule, including some surprise new films and live events.

The full festival schedule can be found at overlookfilmfest.com/schedule.

The new additions to the lineup bring the festival total to 56 films (34 features and 22 shorts) from 15 countries, as well as twelve live events and four immersive experiences, making this the largest Overlook lineup in the festival’s nine year history.

“This year’s giant lineup brings into focus all of the ways we love to be scared, regardless of what flavor of spooky is your jam” said Sheryl Santacruz, festival director of The Overlook Film Festival. “We can’t wait to join with the greatest, most dedicated genre fans in the world to celebrate this sensation that we all love in ways that we never imagined possible,...

Prey star Amber Midthunder wants to return to the Predatorfranchise but can't tell fans precisely if and when that will happen. Prey debuted on Hulu in August 2022 and blew fans away by giving a new spin on the Predator franchise by placing it in the 1700s and having the iconic alien face off against a young Comanche woman. Midthunder played Naru, a woman who proves to her tribe she is one of their greatest warriors by slaying the mighty Predator. Prey's end credits teased the arrival of more Predators, opening the door for sequels, yet it has been nearly three years with no follow-up.

While promoting her latest film, Novocain, Midthunder spoke with Collider about wanting to reprise her role as Naru in a future Prey sequel. It seems like director Dan Trachtenberg is fully committed to the next entry in the franchise, Predator: Badlands, leaving the fate of...

The Masters of the Universe franchise has been going strong for over forty years now, consisting of multiple lines of action figures, several animated TV shows, a bunch of comic book series, and much more including a live-action film adaptation that was released in 1987 and starred Dolph Lundgren as the iconic character He-Man. Although that ’87 film has a strong fan following, it wasn’t received very well in general… but now, Mattel (the toy company behind the franchise) is ready to give the idea of a live-action Masters of the Universe film another try. Set up at Amazon MGM Studios and Mattel Studios, the new Masters of the Universe is aiming for a theatrical release date of June 5, 2026 – and here’s everything we know about it:

Development Hell

The new attempt to bring a live-action Masters of Universe movie into the world has been making its way through development hell...

Fresh from winning the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary at Sundance, Seeds will germinate at True/False, the acclaimed documentary festival in Columbia, Mo. Brittany Shyne’s film, exploring the experience of Black farmers who till the soil in the South, bows on the festival’s opening night on Thursday, with additional screenings on Friday and on Sunday, the closing night of True/False.

“Seeds is such a beautiful film. It’s one of my absolute favorites in the lineup,” notes True/False Artistic Director Chloé Trayner. “I know I’m not meant to have favorites, but it’s just pure cinema.”

Long before the documentary’s premiere, it earned support from True/False. “Seeds was a part of our Rough Cut Retreat, which we run in partnership with Catapult Film Fund. And so Brittany brought the project to the retreat along with her editor Malika [Zouhali-Worrall], and we spent five days together,...

March is set to be a big month for Hulu, with a packed lineup of movies and shows heading to the streaming service. Things kick off on March 1 with a huge drop of over 50 films, including some major fan favorites.

Sci-fi lovers have plenty to look forward to as Hulu adds nearly the entire Alien franchise to its catalog. Viewers will be able to stream Alien, Aliens, Alien 3, Alien: Resurrection, Alien vs. Predator, Alien: Covenant, and Prometheus. Prey and Alien: Romulus are already available, so this update brings the full saga together in one place.

For those more interested in award-winning dramas, March 1 also brings several critically acclaimed films, including American Hustle, Brooklyn, Jojo Rabbit, Good Will Hunting, The Social Network, and Sideways.

The Oscars will also be a major event on Hulu this month. The streaming service will air the live broadcast of the Academy Awards on March...

The Predator franchise has been through some ups and downs over the years. The original Predatoris the perfect mix of a high-concept sci-fi movie and an action thriller, as its gung-ho heroes are being hunted by a killer alien. Predator 2 moved the action to New York City (and had a deep-cut Easter egg that launched an unexpected crossover with Alien.) Predators is severely underrated; it managed to shake up the franchise formula by taking its human characters off world, resulting in even more danger. But the franchise was nearly derailed by The Predatorin 2018. On the surface, The Predator had all the right ingredients: it would be directed by Shane Black, who had a role in the original Predator and knew his way around an action film, and it featured a cast stacked with talent, including Boyd Holbrook and Sterling K. Brown.

Beyond "Aliens" and "Predators," the alien movie subgenre is debatably the crown jewel of cinematic science fiction. It allows visionary filmmakers and effects designers the chance to show audiences creatures they never would have imagined. Sometimes they're meant to strike terror into the hearts of moviegoers afraid of the unknown, but they can also be used to inspire a profound sense of empathy and wonder about the greater universe that surrounds our little blue planet.

Finding a good alien movie can be tricky, even on a streaming service like Netflix, despite its seemingly infinite offerings in nearly every genre (even though physical media is where the goods truly are). Admittedly, they don't have what many consider to be the best alien movies ever made, but that doesn't mean there aren't a few hidden gems, forgotten masterpieces, and workable misfires in the catalog to fuel your next intergalactic movie night. From...

Fans of the Predatorfranchise can look forward to catching every single entry on a single streaming platform.

Per Hulu, 1987's hit sci-fi action-horrorPredator will be arriving on the platform on March 1. Better yet, Predator will be joined by every entry in the feature film franchise that isn't already a part of the Hulu library, including Predator 2, Predators, The Predator, Alien vs. Predator, and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem.

Related'We Tried to Remove It': Anya Taylor-Joy & Miles Teller Address References to Past Roles in New Horror Movie

The Gorge stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Miles Teller discuss their attempts to have references to their past leading roles removed from the movie.

Directed by John McTiernan from a script by Jim and John Thomas, Predator's ensemble cast was led by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the role of Dutch Schaefer, an elite soldier sent on a rescue mission deep in the rainforests of Central America.

Olivia Munn joined Monica Lewinsky’s Reclaiming podcast and opened up about turning down a hefty sum of money after reporting a “traumatic” experience on a movie set.

In the episode aired Wednesday, Munn said the incident took place around the beginning of the #MeToo era, following the wave of sexual abuse accusations against disgraced film executive Harvey Weinstein. Munn did not name the studio, film, individuals involved, or additional details about the incident.

“There were things that happened on this movie set, personally to me, that were really not...

Olivia Munn says she once refused at least a million dollars to agree to stay silent over a traumatic incident that took place on a movie set.

The New Girl and The Newsroom actress was talking to Monica Lewinsky for this week’s episode of her podcast Reclaiming (below), where she recalled the experience. While Munn didn’t detail the incident or name the film, she said it took place around the beginning of the #MeToo era, which got underway around 2017.

“There were things that happened on this movie set, personally to me, that were really not Ok and it was so traumatic that I had to file complaints with the studio,” Munn said. “It got to this place where I was offered a lot of money, a lot of money — seven figures — to accept their apology. But it came along with an NDA.”

“Not that I would ever have talked about it,...

Olivia Munn recently appeared on Monica Lewinsky’s “Reclaiming” podcast and revealed she once turned down an offer worth millions of dollars from a studio to sign an NDA after she endured a “traumatic” incident on a movie set. Munn did not name the movie or go into detail about the incident.

“I had to file complaints with the studio, and there’s a lot of other little things that go along with it, but it got to this place where I was offered a lot of money,” Munn said (via E! Online). “Seven figures to accept, I guess, their apology and them taking acknowledgement of it, but it came along with an NDA. Not that I ever would talk about it truly, because I wanted to move past it all. But I said I’m not signing an NDA, and they said I have to.”

“I just felt it was so wrong,...

A Predator movie directed by Shane Black, written by him and the director of The Monster Squad. This sounded like the recipe for an awesome sci-fi action horror film, but what Black delivered was one of the least popular films in the Predator franchise, with a third act that was completely different from what was originally written and a variety of bad ideas being filmed as potential endings. Critics were unimpressed. Fans were disappointed. And now, we’re going to dig into what happened to The Predator.

1987 was a huge year for Shane Black. His original screenplay Lethal Weapon was turned into an action classic by director Richard Donner. His friend, director Fred Dekker, brought their script for the creature feature The Monster Squad to the screen, creating a film that is now considered to be a cult classic. And he was cast alongside the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Carl Weathers,...

The Predator franchise recently received a huge shot to the arm in 2023 with the arrival of Prey, Dan Trachtenberg’s incredible prequel to the 1987 original that refreshed and revived the sci-fi action franchise, and for many even surpassed the classic Arnold Schwarzenegger movie in several ways. Now, audiences are reminding themselves of how Arnie tried, and failed, to get everyone to the chopper almost 40 years ago, and have made the original film an apex predator of Tubi's free streaming chart.

Directed by John McTiernan—who would later helm Die Hard—Predator stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as Major Alan “Dutch” Schaefer, leading an elite Special Forces team on a covert rescue mission in Central America – well didn’t he always. What should have been a routine operation soon spirals into a bloody and desperate battle for survival when the group find themselves under attack from an invisible and deadly hunter unlike anything they have encountered before.

The 22nd edition of the True/False Film Fest, kicking off Feb. 27, will feature a lineup of 30 feature documentaries and 24 short docs. The Columbia, Missouri-based four-day doc film festival will showcase eight Sundance 2025 films, including U.S. documentary prize winner “Seeds,” “Predators,” and “The Dating Game.”

The fest’s lineup includes seven world premieres, one international premiere, and three North American premieres. Fourteen of the True/False feature docus were made by first-time feature directors.

“This year’s films run the gamut when it comes to form, tone, and perspective, but the thing that unites them is their unwavering commitments to their artistic visions,” said True/False artistic director Chloé Trayner. “The lineup is a kaleidoscope of reflections on our modern world, embracing past, present, and future in beautiful, devastating, and hopeful ways. We can’t wait to share these films with our audience soon.”

Since launching in 2004, True/False...

Adrien Brody never looked like a leading man.

Casting agents and executives made that message clear over and over again throughout his three-plus decades as a working actor. “Overtly,” Brody, 51, says. “But, yeah, it was often told to my representatives, and my representatives would share that with me.”

Even after nabbing the best actor Oscar in 2003 at the age of 29 for “The Pianist” — making him the youngest winner ever in the category — he never quite maintained A-list status.

While a few directors came calling with the occasional studio lead role, like Peter Jackson for his $200 million 2005 tentpole “King Kong” and Nimród Antal for the 2010 “Predators” sequel, those were the exceptions. Yes, he’s booked five movies with Wes Anderson since joining the director’s repertory company in 2007’s “The Darjeeling Limited,” but other major roles have eluded him, even while peers such as Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Leonardo DiCaprio...

Sundance is a place for discovery, where new stars are minted because of the fresh, invigorating images they bring to the screen. It was where Steven Soderbergh helped kick off the indie film revolution in 1989 with “sex, lies, and videotape” and Quentin Tarantino launched “Reservoir Dogs” in 1992. They showed that, at Sundance, if you have something to say, you can have a seat at the table.

This year, that daring new voice belongs to Eva Victor, whose comedic character study “Sorry, Baby,” about a young professor reeling from a trauma, sold to A24 for $8 million. “Sorry, Baby” also has the distinction of placing first in many of the categories in IndieWire’s 2025 Sundance Critics Survey, including Best Performance (for Victor herself), Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best First Film, and Best Film itself.

Though “Sorry, Baby” was the undeniable favorite across the board at Sundance 2025, our critics survey shared the love...

Sundance 2025 may have been an ill-timed off year for an institution in the midst of an existential crisis (largely by dint of its place in an industry in the midst of an existential crisis), but the festival remains completely unrivaled as America’s greatest showcase for the best in new independent cinema, and its latest edition did nothing to change that. Underwhelming as it was on the whole, the 88-feature lineup still had more than its fair share of fantastic and revitalizing films, many of which we’re sure to be talking about for the rest of the year and beyond.

Some (like James Sweeney’s “Twinless” and Clint Bentley’s “Train Dreams”) found semi-established directors emerging as singular talents. Others saw relative unknowns or long-absent favorites step into the spotlight as though it had always been waiting for them. Predictably, however, it was the documentaries that drove most of the conversation,...

Quick LinksWhat Is the Problem With Flight Risk's Winston?How Does Con Air Perfect the Heroic Airplane Prisoner?

The following contains spoilers for Flight Risk, now playing in theaters.

The premise of Flight Risk is simple: Mark Wahlberg plays a hitman pretending to be a pilot named Daryl. He's flying a plane and trying to kill a mob informant being transported. However, he has to contend with a US Marshal named Madolyn (Michelle Dockery), creating a high-octane, intense movie along the lines of Plane and Non-Stop.

Luckily, the prisoner, Winston (Topher Grace), becomes a valuable player and helps Madolyn out. Director Mel Gibson wants fans to empathize with Winston, give him a second chance, and paint him as a hero. However, this redemption story in the high-skies was done much better thanks to a Nicolas Cage film from 28 years ago: Con Air. That film has the strong foundation that Flight Risk lacks.

It might resemble the process of setting up for any documentary: as “Predators” begins, camera crews assemble equipment, angles are established, and on-screen talent takes their place. This, however, is not a documentary; rather, these are shots from behind the scenes of “To Catch a Predator,” a recurring segment on the seminal news program Dateline NBC that became a cultural landmark for much of the mid-’00s and made a star out of journalist/host Chris Hansen.

Continue reading ‘Predators’ Review: A Not-So-Fondly Examination Of ‘To Catch a Predator’ [w sees Sundance] at The Playlist.

In his seminal 1975 book Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, Michel Foucault wrote, “Today, criminal justice functions and justifies itself only by this perpetual reference to something other than itself, by this unceasing reinscription in non-juridical systems.” Foucault certainly couldn’t have predicted the existence or meteoric rise (and fall) of To Catch a Predator, the Dateline NBC spinoff series that blurred the line between news reportage, reality show, and vigilante justice, and aired from 2004 to 2007. But the notion that punishment in the public square would eventually re-emerge in televisual form, providing a new type of panoptic threat to dissuade potential criminals, is a natural extension of his ideas.

David Osit’s Predators moves beyond recounting the controversial show’s history. The documentary begins by interrogating the flawed, contradictory, but very human impulses that drove Chris Hansen, To Catch a Predator’s host and creative force. Hansen, first and foremost,...

Filmmaker David Osit gives viewers a lot to wrestle with in Predators, his documentary about the reality show To Catch a Predator, which captured the zeitgeist of the early 2000s. In the show, host Chris Hansen confronted adult men who had arrived to a location (following an online chat correspondence) with the alleged intention of engaging in sexual activity with a minor. The set-up was, in fact, a sting orchestrated by the show’s producers in collaboration with local law enforcement. It made for compelling television and was advertised like so, as well as a public good. Predators wrestles with the legacy of the program, the ethical questions it raised, and the copycat vigilantes it inspired. The show was cancelled not long after suspect Texas assistant district attorney Bill Conradt committed suicide as cameras and cops were descending on his home. A cascading level of criticism was soon drawn against the production,...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

2025 Sundance Film Festival

While Sundance Film Festival kicked off last week in Park City, those across the country can now experience the festival from home through this Sunday with online offerings. As of this publishing, there’s still online tickets available for some of my favorites of the festival, including Blknws: Terms & Conditions, The Perfect Neighbor, Two Women, Zodiac Killer Project, Obex, Mr. Nobody Against Putin, Cutting Through Rocks, 2000 Meters to Andriivka, and Predators. Check out all our coverage here and we’ll be sharing much more in the coming days.

Where to Stream: Sundance.org (through Sunday)

Babygirl (Halina Reijn)

Premiering with much fervor at the Venice Film Festival, Halina Reijn’s Bodies Bodies Bodies follow-up Babygirl finds Nicole Kidman...

It’s all the same (only the names have changed): A man, and it’s always a man, starts chatting online with what he believes to be an underage boy or girl. The conversation either immediately or eventually turns explicitly sexual. He decides to take things one step further and arrange an in-person encounter. The man is greeted at the door by someone who appears to be a youngster, invited inside, and a minute or so after crossing that threshold, finds himself suddenly talking to another adult male in the room.

“Is it even possible for something designed as entertainment to be a public service?” Predators cinematographer-editor-director David Osit asks this question of ethnographer Mark de Rond about NBC TV show To Catch a Predator and its successors, but it also applies to this project’s of-the-moment anxieties about nonfiction practice. Documentaries seem to have entered a phase of self-reflexive fretting about their own impact; I think one reason No Other Land has become so popular is because it explicitly states this, having its subjects worry about their Facebook click rates and wonder out loud whether the film they’re making can possibly […]

The post Sundance 2025: Predators, André is an Idiot, Marlee Matlin: I’m Not Alone first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

“Is it even possible for something designed as entertainment to be a public service?” Predators cinematographer-editor-director David Osit asks this question of ethnographer Mark de Rond about NBC TV show To Catch a Predator and its successors, but it also applies to this project’s of-the-moment anxieties about nonfiction practice. Documentaries seem to have entered a phase of self-reflexive fretting about their own impact; I think one reason No Other Land has become so popular is because it explicitly states this, having its subjects worry about their Facebook click rates and wonder out loud whether the film they’re making can possibly […]

The post Sundance 2025: Predators, André is an Idiot, Marlee Matlin: I’m Not Alone first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

When “To Catch a Predator” aired as part of “Dateline NBC” from 2004 to 2007, it drew the kind of praise that rarely met early reality TV. It wasn’t just reality TV, it was a social good, a way of exposing men who would sexually prey on underage teenagers, a way of getting evidence to convict men who showed undeniable intent to commit statutory rape. This is the kind of show of which even Jon Stewart, famously critical of exploitative TV, said, “I approve” when welcoming the series’ host, Chris Hansen, on “The Daily Show.”

The show ended in part because of legal entanglements related to the death of one of the alleged predators it had caught in one of its stings. Almost 20 years later, it has spawned an entire universe of unauthorized spinoffs, some still involving Chris Hansen himself.

Now there’s a documentary about “To Catch a Predator” and its aftermath: “Predators,...

Like many Americans in the early aughts, documentary filmmaker David Osit watched “To Catch a Predator,” a hidden camera reality TV show that followed journalist Chris Hansen working in coordination with law enforcement while conducting sting operations that exposed adult men who were hoping to have sex with minors.

“I found it fascinating and weird and strangely addictive,” he admits. “In many ways, it was sort of the template for modern true crime TV.”

But he never really gave the NBC series much thought until years later when he came across an article about Bill Conradt, a Texas assistant district attorney who committed suicide in 2007 after police served him with a warrant stemming from one of Hansen’s online investigations into potential pedophiles. Hansen and his crew were on the scene when Conradt shot himself. The episode eventually aired, but NBC’s journalism was criticized for breaching ethical lines and Conradt’s family sued.

If “To Catch a Predator” taught us anything, it was about the hollow authority asserted by a man in a well-cut suit. Between 2004 and 2007, NBC’s pedophile-baiting “Dateline” spinoff captured the imagination of the American public, announcing itself as not just reality-based entertainment but a protective public service — largely on the strength of host Chris Hansen’s suave, smooth presence as he cornered and questioned potential sex offenders with the apparent clout of a cop or lawyer, as the cameras kept rolling. Never mind that he was a mere newsman, or that the show’s manipulations rendered most of its cases impossible to prosecute. “To Catch a Predator” delivered justice as the people preferred to see it: visibly, ruthlessly and on television. David Osit was among the many who were hooked; 20 years on, his measured, nuanced and finally gut-punching documentary “Predators” wonders why.

The premise for “To Catch a Predator” was so simple — naive,...

Over its multi-year run as part of NBC’s Dateline franchise, To Catch a Predator wasn’t impervious to criticism or lawsuits, but it was surely insulated.

Sure, you might say, every episode was a carefully orchestrated piece of entrapment in which the relationship between journalists and law enforcement became blurred in a way that the relationship between journalists and law enforcement should never become blurred.

“What, are you in favor of sexual predators?” fans of the show would then reply

It’s hard to have a nuanced conversation from there.

In his new Sundance-premiering documentary Predators, director David Osit takes advantage of the 17+ years since To Catch a Predator ended to attempt to have those conversations.

The result is a 96-minute film that some people will find disappoining, when what it’s actually about is disappointment, because the temptation when you sit down to watch Predators is to demand...

One of the worst casualties of the streaming era is how independent documentary filmmaking has fallen even more to the wayside than before. Prior to Netflix, there was the odd documentary that would break into the mainstream. Titles like West of Memphis, Blackfish, and Dear Zachary, not to mention all of Michael Moore’s work, were widely acclaimed by critics, audiences, festival juries, and even the Academy Awards. But since the major streamers have cornered the market with their seemingly endless slew of docuseries on famed serial killers, a documentary movie that isn’t focused on one man’s life of heinous crimes feels more rare than ever. That’s what makes David Osit’s Predators so vital. It’s not only counterprogramming to the same formulaic true crime series that streaming platforms continue to churn out, but it’s also in direct dialog with these shows and the audience's unrelenting obsession with them.

“Why don’t you have a seat over here.”

It’s perverse that a TV news program about child predators quickly developed its own catchphrase, as if silver-throated host Chris Hansen were just another incarnation of Steve Urkel, but such was the addictive mix of harrowing docudrama and lizard brain entertainment that defined the “Dateline NBC” spinoff “To Catch a Predator.”

On the air from 2004 to 2007, the show followed a simple formula: Members of a volunteer organization known as “Perverted-Justice” would find men online and lure them to a house with the explicit promise of having sex with a minor. When the marks arrived, they would be greeted by a young-looking decoy — only for Hansen to step out of the shadows a moment later, along with a camera crew ready to broadcast their shame to the world. After sputtering apologies and pleading for mercy while Hansen read aloud from the...

In two days the Sundance Film Festival kicks off in Park City with a robust slate of nonfiction films (we leave it to others to cover the fiction slate!). Opening day/night alone features several world-premiere documentaries including the latest from two Oscar winners: Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius) and Mstyslav Chernov’s 2000 Meters to Andriivka.

On the latest edition of Deadline’s Doc Talk podcast, we welcome Sundance documentary programmers Basil Tsiokos and Sudeep Sharma to explore some of the most anticipated nonfiction films and episodics on the 2025 slate. Along with the Questlove and Chernov’s docs, they tell us about the mystery surrounding a late add to the festival – The Stringer, directed by Bao Nguyen. We say “mystery” because the film already is generating controversy before its debut, and the Sundance programmers aren’t even at liberty, at this point,...

Given the massive success of the MCU and its looming presence over almost all facets of pop culture, it's hard for well-known actors not to be approached with the question of whether they'd join the blockbuster franchise and what role specifically they'd want to play. Adrien Brody, who has been making the rounds promoting the A24 film The Brutalist, spoke to Josh Horowitz on the Happy Sad Confused podcast about how he would be more than willing to explore the idea of joining the MCU. However, Brody said any such discussions would be dependent on whether the filmmaker's vision for the character was interesting. The actor would specifically say:

“Like I said, if I was presented with an opportunity to play an interesting character with a filmmaker that elevated me and gave me space to do something vastly different in that world, it sounds amazing. You have this wonderful machine...

There is literally only one star that could have made Predator's bait-and-switch work, and his name is Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Arnold Schwarzenegger action movies of the 1980s and 1990s are one of the best runs any actor has had in the genre, yielding several classics (The Terminator duology) and enduring favorites. By the time the first Predator arrived in 1987, Arnie was officially one of the biggest stars in the world - but he still took a risk with the project.

It's a unique fusion of action and horror and ends with Arnold's Dutch getting his ass thoroughly kicked by a giant alien. Had the movie not worked, it could have been an embarrassing failure that hurt his career. Instead, it launched Arnie to new heights, while spawning the Predator movie franchise. None of the sequels quite recaptured what made the original so special, which includes the sheer surprise of...

Heath Ledger died months before The Dark Knight arrived in theaters in 2008. That meant the actor never got to see the response to his performance as The Joker, a role that saw him posthumously awarded the "Best Supporting Actor" Oscar the following year.

It's impossible to imagine anyone else playing the Clown Prince of Crime in the Christopher Nolan-helmed movie, especially as Ledger's interpretation of the Clown Prince of Crime has become nothing short of iconic.

Nolan did consider other actors for the role, including The Pianist, King Kong, and The Brutalist star Adrien Brody. Talking to Josh Horowitz, the Oscar winner admitted that while he met with the filmmaker, the role was never his. 

"Oh no, I wasn't close. It was a role that I felt very suited to do," he says in the video below. "Heath did such a remarkable job in that movie. It was indelible.

‘Predators’ (2010) is a science fiction action movie directed by Nimród Antal and the third in the ‘Predator’ series. The movie served as sort of a reboot for the franchise, but it was planned from at least 1994. Robert Rodriguez wrote a script for a third ‘Predator’ film, but it was rejected due to a high budget.

Fifteen years later, 20th Century Fox revisited the script and decided to move forward with it, giving Rodriguez a chance to revive the franchise. In ‘Predators,’ humans are abducted and brought to a remote planet where they are hunted by the Predators, instead of the usual setup where Predators come to Earth.

The group of humans includes dangerous individuals such as a mercenary, a Yakuza member, a death row felon, and a serial killer. Co-writer Michael Finch explained that they wanted to change the formula of the series, which had become repetitive with the Predators simply coming to Earth.

Although 2007’s Alien vs. Predator: Requiem had a lot of issues, its non-existent lighting was one of the weirdest problems in either the Alien or Predator franchises. All the Alien movies have their fans and every entry into The Predator franchise has its moments despite their flaws. However, few viewers are willing to defend the Alien Vs Predator movies. While less popular franchise entries like 2018’s The Predator or 1990’s Alien 3 still have moments of merit, it is hard to see what the Alien Vs Predator movies bring to the table.

Related How Alien Vs Predator: Requiem Ruined Both Iconic Movie Monsters

How Alien Vs Predator: Requiem took an R-rating, a Predalien, Predators, and Aliens, and still managed to make the franchise's worst movie

2004’s Alien Vs Predator infamously sapped the two franchises of their gory appeal with an inexplicable PG-13 rating. Although Event Horizon director Paul Ws Anderson...

Adrien Brody recalls how one of his collaborations with acclaimed director Peter Jackson saw him earn praise for his driving skills in a tense, tightly-packed shoot for a stunt. The actor is recognizable from his roles in Predators, See How They Run, as well as his frequent collaborations with Wes Anderson for The Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The French Dispatch, and Asteroid City. Brody recently starred in The Brutalist, a period drama focused on a Jewish architect and Holocaust survivor trying to achieve the American Dream.

After starting his career working on dark and horrific comedies, Jackson's 1994 biographical drama Heavenly Creatures launched the director into wider recognition in Hollywood. In 1997, the director embarked on a once-thought-impossible journey to adapt The Lord of the Rings to the big screen, producing the acclaimed trilogy in the late '90s and early 2000s before returning to The Hobbit trilogy throughout the 2010s.

Director Steven Soderbergh released his annual "Seen, Read" list of all the movies, TV shows, plays, books, and more he consumed in 2024. The famous helmer of Sex, Lies, and Videotape and Ocean's Eleven consumed a massive amount of content. But you'd be surprised to learn that the man who was once nominated for two movies for Best Director in one year watched the prequest Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (twice), Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith.

Soderbergh is known to be one of the busiest directors / producers / cinematographers in Hollywood, oftentimes directing and releasing multiple films per year. As an example, in 2023 alone, he directed Magic Mike's Last Dance and multiple episodes of TV shows, Command Z and Full Circle. Yet he also finds the time to watch and read dozens of films, shows, and books.

While he has one film set for 2025, the spy thriller Black Bag...

The Yautja species are among the most terrifying alien creatures in all of science fiction, and the many different variants seen in the Predator franchise boast significant kill counts. From Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Dutch Schaefer taking down the Jungle Hunter seen in the original Predator to the Feral variety in Dan Trachtenberg’s prequel Prey, these extraterrestrials count animals, humans, and even Xenomorph aliens among their long list of victims. With terrifying techniques, such as Predators’ tendency to skin their victims, to encounter one of these creatures in the real world would be a truly frightening proposition.

With epic crossover series like Alien vs. Predator, thrilling prequels that outlined the species mythology, or exciting spin-offs that took viewers off Earth, the sheer volume of Yautja variants was truly impressive. As a trophy-hunting species that thinks of killing as a type of sport, the Yautja have gone down in cinematic history as some of the smartest,...

Although 2018’s The Predator was flawed, the failed reboot could have derailed both the Alien and Predator franchises if its original endings were used. 2018’s The Predator was one of a string of movies that tried to recapture the fast-paced fusion of action, sci-fi, and horror found in 1987’s original Predator. That Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle was tense, funny, and scary, but none of the subsequent movies starring the titular killer lived up to its promise. Predator 2 was fun but cheesy, both Alien Vs Predator movies were deeply flawed, and 2010’s Predators was merely fine.

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It wasn’t until 2022’s reboot Prey that the series received a truly superb follow-up to the original movie. However, The Predator appeared to have...

Last Updated on January 2, 2025

The Brutalist is the new and very ambitious feature from actor-turned-director Brady Corbet. It brings to life the story of an immigrant arriving in America in 1947. And speaking honestly, I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about an over three-and-a-half-hour fictional tale about an architect. Especially since his Natalie Portman feature Vox Lux did not work for me. Yet stepping into The Brutalist in 70mm with a buddy of mine, we both were completely engaged in this stunning new work. Adrien Brody is exceptional once again, as is Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn, and more. Brady’s latest is a bold interpretation of history, and an exceptional cinematic world if you are willing to take the journey.

I’ve spoken with Adrien Brody twice: once for Predators and once for Splice. Both are very different films from his latest. Yet when I mentioned Splice before the interview,...

One of the lesser-known Predator franchise films will soon be available to watch on Peacock. 2010's Predators arrives on the streaming service on Jan. 1.

Predators is the third film in the main series of the Predator film franchise and its fifth film overall. Fallout's Walton Goggins starred in the film's ensemble cast, which also included Adrien Brody, Topher Grace, Alice Braga and Laurence Fishburne. Predators' story chronicles the adventures of a group of skilled killers who have been kidnapped and taken to a planet where two tribes of alien predators reign supreme. On this new planet, the group fights to survive, hoping to find a way back to Earth before they're killed by the extraterrestrials.

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Predators was released...

Arnold Schwarzenegger fans are going to want to subscribe to Peacock before the new year. Two of the actor's most popular movies are set to drop onto the streaming service in January: Predator and Conan the Barbarian.

Beginning Jan. 1, Schwarzenegger fans will be able to stream Predator and Conan the Barbarian on Peacock. Conan the Barbarian was Schwarzenegger's first leading role of the 1980s and one of his most memorable, with the actor playing the popular sword-and-sorcery warrior created by Robert E. Howard. The 1982 movie follows Conan as he seeks vengeance for the death of his parents at the hands of Thulsa Doom (The Lion King's James Earl Jones), the leader of a snake cult. Conan was a commercial success during its initial run, grossing over $70 million worldwide against a $20 million budget. A sequel, Conan the Destroyer, was released in 1984.

Related Conan the Barbarian Release Date Announced for Mortal Kombat...

One of the issues that many “breakout stars” face after they become famous for their first major role is leading a career that can live up to that initial hype. This was certainly the case with Adrien Brody, whose breakthrough performance in the powerful Holocaust drama The Pianist made him the youngest Best Actor winner in the history of the Academy Awards. Although there was a tremendous amount of pressure on Brody to continue working on major projects from big studios, it was harder for him to stand out in blockbuster titles like King Kong and Predators. However, Brody was still able to remind viewers why he was considered to be such a revelation when he started popping up in smaller, independent productions. Brody is absolutely captivating as a compassionate teacher in the drama Detachment, which is among the most underrated films of the last few decades.

The following contains spoilers for Earth Abides Episode 4, "Predators," which debuted Sunday, Dec. 22 on MGM+.

Aaron Tveit is showing off a new -- and somewhat unsettling -- side of his talent in Earth Abides. The MGM+ show stars Tveit as Charlie, a man who crosses paths with Ish and Emma, and has a lot more to do with their predicament than they realize. It's a change of pace for the actor who has won legions of fans playing generally good people in projects like Graceland and his Tony Award-winning role in the Broadway production of Moulin Rouge!

In an interview with Cbr, Tveit opened up about the joy of playing a character so different from what audiences expect of him. He detailed his process in developing Charlie to make him more than just another TV villain, and finding what made the character do the things he does. Plus, learn how...

[Warning: The following post contains Major spoilers about Earth Abides Episodes 4 and 5, “Predators” and “The Return.”] Earth Abides‘ latest episodes present Aaron Tveit like you’ve never seen him before. The apocalyptic drama returned with a shocking two-parter on Sunday (December 22), taking audiences to Year 17 of the post-pandemic world in which water has become a major scarcity for Ish’s (Alexander Ludwig) community, and only Tveit’s newcomer Charlie seems to have a clue what to do about it. Ish doesn’t trust Charlie — after all, Ish’s leadership has so far been unquestioned for almost two decades, but this guy has unbridled alpha energy — but most of the others dismiss those concerns… until Charlie gives them all a very big reason to feel otherwise. When Charlie is spotted leaving the house of Evie, the feral child who has now grown up in the care of the community and still has special needs, they all know that he...

Arnold Schwarzenegger's Dutch Schaefer was the driving force behind 1987's hit action-horror classic Predator, but Schwarzenegger was conspicuously absent from Predator 2 despite being written into the original plans. While the first Predator saw the eponymous hunter-alien stalking and killing special ops forces in the jungle, the sequel placed a new Predator in the urban jungle of Los Angeles, where it executed its honor-based hunt at the expense of the gangs and law enforcement officers of the city. Schwarzenegger's Dutch Schaefer was nowhere to be found in the narrative, and there were few direct references to the first Predator.

With Schwarzenegger's star power nearing its apex at the time Predator 2 was released, it made sense for his character to return for the follow-up to Predator, and that was indeed how the movie was initially developed. However, early in the process, Schwarzenegger's Dutch Schaefer was written out of the story,...

Updated with details on documentaries from Elegance Bratton, Amy Berg, Jesse Moss, and Amanda McBaine, and Sally key art. Some of the biggest talents in documentary film will be unveiling new work at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, including Oscar winners Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Davis Guggenheim, and Mstyslav Chernov.

The marquee names in the nonfiction slate extend to the subjects of films – musical great Sly Stone examined in Questlove’s Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius); the late Selena Quintanilla’s story told in a film by Isabel Castro; Actress Marlee Matlin’s trailblazing career explored in Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore, from director Shoshannah Stern; astronaut Sally Ride’s gravity-defying journey and personal life revealed in Sally, directed by Cristina Costantini.

No Sundance premiere documentary may attract more attention than Pee-wee as Himself, “A chronicle of the life of artist and performer Paul Reubens and his alter ego Pee-wee Herman.