Predator: Badlands director Dan Trachtenberg is reportedly taking a break from the sci-fi franchise he helped reinvigorate to work on a different Disney-owned IP, but it ain’t Star Wars or Alien. Nope, Trachtenberg is reportedly going to help develop and direct a new movie inspired by Disney’s classic animated flick Sleeping Beauty.
On September 28, Deadline reported that it had heard from sources with knowledge of the situation that Trachtenberg is developing an idea he and TV writer Rayna McClendon came up with that reportedly will take the story in an entirely new direction. The actual script will be written by Alex Anfanger and Dan Schimpf. Trachtenberg will direct, and sources tell the outlet that the plan is for the untitled Sleeping Beauty film to still feel like one of his projects.
No plot details were shared or reported by Deadline, but sources told the outlet that the upcoming film will have zero connection with Angelina Jolie’s pair of live-action Maleficent films.
It’s certainly an odd turn for Trachtenberg who, back in 2022, basically saved the Predator franchise from falling into pop culture obscurity with his hit Hulu movie Prey. He has since followed that up with two more well-received and popular projects set in the Predator universe: the theatrical film Predator: Badlands and the Hulu animated anthology movie Predator: Killers of Killers. Many fans were hopeful he’d get another shot at making a Predator movie or TV show, but it seems like Disney, which owns Fox and the Predator series, has different plans for the talented director.
The question now is how many bloody spines will be ripped out of people’s backs in Trachtenberg’s upcoming Sleeping Beauty movie? It will likely be a bit before we get the answer to that, as he’s currently in pre-production on an unknown, non-Predator film for Paramount.