You're going to write and direct a new Predator movie, 30 years after Fox asked you to punch up the script for the original movie and you declined. Then the studio cast you in a role, hoping you'd rewrite the script, and you still refused. How does the guy who kept saying no wind up taking over the franchise?

They called me and I was reluctant. I said, "Look. You guys at Fox, I mean, I enjoy these movies, but we've been churning out these AVP whatever, they each cost a certain amount of money, they're okay, but there's no effort to elevate them or make them any kind of an event." They're just sort of another Predator. "Oh, there's another one that came out." They said, "What if we said to you we want to reinvent this, and really treat it with as much of an event status, or as much hoopla as we would the Alien prequel, which is coming out also? We really want to make this something. The kind of movie that people line up for." I said, "Really, you'll spend a bunch of money?" They go, "Yep." I go, "Make it really scale, spectacle?" "Yep." "Shit, that sounds interesting."

Fans of the original may not imagine Predator as a giant blockbuster.

I think the first one was great, and it was contained, and it was a perfect little gem for what it was. I think there's an expansion that needs to take place, and also just a love for that era, that movie, and the mythology of the Predator. I think that they came to me knowing pretty much that... they said, basically, if I wanted to make Predator but treat it like it was Iron Man III instead of just another little movie. I said, "Let's really do it right this time."

And is Arnold Schwarzenegger back?

Still in talks, script still a secret.

When we heard from Shane Black last month about his plans for The Predator, he said that 20th Century Fox was able to woo him back to the franchise by pitching it as an event on the same level of Alien or Iron Man 3. He didn’t have much beyond that, but there’s certainly room to build an event franchise around the Predator. His films have been varying levels of cool (I say that as a defender of Predators, which was a really neat idea for the franchise), and if you put it in the hands of a talented filmmaker and storyteller like Black, you could really work wonders with the monster.

Steve Weintraub caught up with Black at CinemaCon to talk about Predator. First Black confirmed that it will be his next movie, so that means Doc Savage is probably going to have to wait a little longer:

He then addressed the possibility of Arnold Schwarzenegger coming back, which was also mentioned last month:

Finally, with regards to when the film is set, Black gave us some firm info by revealing that it’s set in the present day:

That means, since The Predator is due out March 2, 2018, thirty-one years will have passed since the events of the original film. How that will affect the plot remains a mystery, but it’s a nice tidbit of info to have.