Wyatt Weed, The Lost Predator...

[Mr Fett]

Then it just would have been another Alien movie, huh?

 

[ptgreek]

Then it just would have been another Alien movie, huh?

Ya ..pretty much ..messing up a lot of film history in the making ..leave it to execs to find a quick fix. Was just told this story the other night at a symposium on Movie Monsters at the Academy of Motion Pictures ..

..Hey Wyatt ...im sure a lot of us who where these suits would love to hear your experience in one of the originals

 

[xdmray]

really enjoyed reading that. thank you for the story. i hope you are able to frequent the lair.

cheers and welcome!

 

[pdisc]

This is soooo much better than inside the actor studio.....thanks for sharing these awesome stories Wyatt. Learning the origins of all this is priceless. Look forward to more of it.

 

[TUSKY]

Wow,...
Thanks again Wyatt, best thing i've read all day
Cheers PTgreek for chipping in also
Happy, happy joy, joy,...happy

 

[4505marcel]

Thanks for popping by again so soon, great stories mate

 

[Danhorse]

THIS is what I love about the FX community, the sharing and sense of being part of a collective.

Thanks Wyatt, wonderful tales and info Thanks to ptgreek too

 

[Superman7]

Awesomeness! It's like the secret life of predator! Bring on part 3! Thanks again wyatt

 

[Usurper]

This all makes me want to watch P1 and P2 again.


i will go put the coffee on

Thanks Wyatt and George.

 

[FZ1]

Great read! Thanks Wyatt.

 

[Blasturbator]

Thanks so much!!!
I would love to hear more
Cheers

 

[CoolleKotten]

I love reading things like this.
Welcome to the lair, Mr Weed. Hope you will enjoy your stay, I know we will enjoy you being here and reading all the storys you got!

 

[cacador]

Pure awesome. Thanks for the stories and the visit!

 

[Elkman]

Thanks for coming here and sharing your stories with us. It's great to hear from someone who not only put one of these suits on and sweated in it, but also actually got paid to do it and appeared in a major motion picture. And thanks for being down to earth and hanging out with us, too. I tend to think of Hollywood actors as being unapproachable, like the kind of people you only read about in magazines but can never talk to. (That was sort of my approach when I met Brian Steele, Creatureboy, on Facebook. His response was along the lines of, "Don't worry about being a fanboy, I'm a fan too!")

I just ordered one of your photos, and I'll display it at my "Predator Hunting Party" that I'm having at a convention in a couple weeks.

 

[CoolleKotten]

I dont know... maybe this is a far stretched silly question, but... do you have any shed of light of where all the suit parts went after filming P2? They didnt all end up in a dumpster, did they? I know some collectors have a few parts hidden away and only a few pop up from time to time, but overall?

 

[JehdinThwei]

Thanks for hanging out with us for a bit, and sharing a slice of epic film history.

 

[Wyatt Weed]

Thank you again for the stories, Wyatt. We soak up your tales like a sponge. Especially the group of us around the Lair who consider all those shortly seen Predators on the ship at the end of Predator 2, our favorite designs of all 5 Predator movies to date. The "Lost Hunters" as this message board named them years ago are my personal favorites !!! Many unique skin tone colors and designs, showing us that like human beings, Predators come in all sort of different skin tones and looks.

Can you enlighten us on something.... I once talked to an older member here who had heard from someone who had been working at Winston Studios during the filming of Predator 2 that more scenes were shot aboard the ship with the other Predators (such as the one you played) that never made the final cut. He told me some of what he was told was "supposed" to happen during that section of the movie, and that they were actually filming more than what we saw in the final copy that hit the theaters.

All I can tell you is that the stuff in the ship was much more complete - we appeared in a very specific fashion and came to a stand-still, we approached the dead predator and carried him off, and then we all marched off and de-cloaked in a very organized, military way. It was all very well covered, many more shots, very deliberate, very complete. I think what you see in the final film is VERY fast, and goes by in just a minute or two. I think at that point it was just the pacing that they had built up to, and they didn't want to slow it down. But to be honest, when I saw the film the first time, I thought "Wow - that was fast!". I appeared, stepped forward, carted off the dead predator. Poof. As a matter of fact, I think they used a cut of two different predators stepping up, and then went back to me for the actual lifting and carrying. It was jumbled, to say the least, but if you weren't there and didn't know, you couldn't tell by watching the film. But we didn't shoot any additional material that was "cut".

 

[Mr Fett]

Thanks for clarifying. We here of course would have liked to see MORE Predator scenes, like the full length version you just described, but we take what we can get.

 

[Lifeburn]

Another great story Wyatt! You should write a book about all of your experiences.

 

[Wyatt Weed]

I dont know... maybe this is a far stretched silly question, but... do you have any shed of light of where all the suit parts went after filming P2? They didnt all end up in a dumpster, did they? I know some collectors have a few parts hidden away and only a few pop up from time to time, but overall?

From everything I've ever experienced on a film of this size, one of two things happens: Either the studio gets it all when it's over and puts it in storage, or the effects company hangs onto and recycles it for other projects, or for sequels. It's actually surprising how much of this stuff gets recycled. When Steve Wang saw the picture of my suit, he was pretty sure that it was a cast from the mold of Brian Simpson's suit from P1, which makes sense since I replaced Brian. So Stan had those molds stored and waiting. It is possible predator suit pieces got cut up and used as parts of other creatures, but more likely, the suits got TRASHED. After working with the suits for an entire film, the surface of the suits get really shredded. Especially the stunt suits. The foam wrinkles and deteriorates, and the paint fades. Under ideal, cool, clean air conditions, foam can last for years. Under use and adverse conditions, though, it gets gnarly. Me sweating in that suit after Brian sweated in it was gnarly, trust me - you wouldn't want it. At a certain point, they really do get kind of unrecognizable and the effects guys get so tired and jaded with the stuff that a lot of it does get pitched, or destroyed. You can't just throw it in a dumpster because then you'd have a 15 year-old running around the Valley in a predator suit, but you do cut them up and destroy them, Stanley Kubrick-style.

So yes, I'm sad to say, I think most of the beat-up foam gets thrown away. There is, however, a very nice full predator suit in Stan Winston's display room, but I don't know if that was a new pull from a mold and placed on a dummy, or if they just recycled an old suit. I would bet they did a little of both, casting some new pieces and re-using what they could.