Upcoming Predator movie Prey features a Comanche woman as its lead, but producer Jhane Myers has revealed that the movie was initially meant to be filmed in Comanche entirely.
Directed by Dan Trachtenberg, the prequel movie – coming to Disney+ in the UK on Friday (August 5) – sees Amber Midthunder play Naru, a young Comanche woman who wants to be a hunter and finds herself hunting (and being hunted by) the iconic Predator.
Ahead of the movie's release, producer Jhane Myers spoke exclusively to Digital Spy about the original plans for Prey's dialogue, confirming that the script was first written in the Numic language spoken by the Native American tribe.
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"Originally, when the film was written, the first script I had, across the top it said 'All dialogue in Comanche', and I was like, 'Oh my God, yes'."
Myers confirmed that director Dan Trachtenberg had "originally pitched" the prequel as a Comanche movie to studios, but a merger side-lined the idea. Instead, a Comanche dub will be available to viewers on the same day Prey is released on Disney+ and Hulu.
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Nonetheless, the cast and crew still see this is an "incredible" feat. "The fact it's getting a full Comanche dub is incredible because being a Comanche, there's never been a movie in its entirety in my language," she said.
"And there's never been a brand-new movie that's been released, like this on Disney+, that you have an option to watch it in Comanche because it's never happened for any Native language."
Related: Prey director reveals what he wanted to avoid from other Predator movies
In a nod to Amber Midthunder's role, Jhane added: "[In] this movie, not only do we have a female Native lead, it sets the bar really high for shifting that paradigm that Hollywood works off of when they think of Native content."
Jhane also opened up about how "important" the Comanche dub feels to her, saying that it "checks all the boxes" of "authenticity and representation".
"That's a huge undertaking," she admitted. "Not only to make sure the film looks good, but to make sure we have the correct language at the end – it's incredible."
Prey is released on Disney+ in the UK and on Hulu in the US on Friday, August 5.
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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
