The back parking lot at Troublemaker became the home of a massive 150 foot by 100 foot exterior Jungle Hunting Camp set. "In creating our hunting camp, [production designer] Caylah [Eddleblute] and I physically walked through the beats as if we were the Predators," says Joyner.

"We wondered where would the Predators bring their kill?  Where would they clean it?  How would they preserve the hides and the bones and the trophies that they take?  So, we designed individual areas within the camp for all of that, so if you were a Predator, you’d feel right at home.  The hunting camp is terrifying; everything was designed to look dangerous."

"One of the big directives from Nimrod on Day One was ‘I want The Hunting Camp to look like a [Hieronymous] Bosch painting it had to be [a Bosch-like] Hell,’" explains Eddleblute.

"Also making key contributions to the set’s hellish look was director of photography Gyula Pados. "The way Gyula shot the hunting camp, it’s almost beautiful," says Rodriguez "It’s soft-lit, as if it’s got this canopy of trees over it, yet mysterious with the smoke from the flames."

Since the story takes place in the jungle, the greens department began their work months before most of the crew. In July, they began gathering plant material in the Texas heat and worked through the dead of winter, caring for everything from small plants to big trees in every extreme.

Local Austin landscape designers and nurseries helped the production source the living greens.  Three fifty-two foot truckloads of approximately 4,000 tropical and exotic plants were initially shipped in from Florida, including 1,200 five-gallon pots of grasses.

Because it was winter, the greens department also used thousands of pounds of silks, some were mounted on portable bases. "We ended up stapling about 1.5 million leaves to the fake big trees," explains greens designer Richard Bell. 

"One of the first things we focused on was the main hunting camp. For about a month and a half, I had a crew of ten guys going out and harvesting material all over Texas that would later be used as dressing. 

"Before shooting, we had about a week to dress the actual hunting camp part of the jungle after the construction crew had finished with all their elements.  We had all kinds of burnt cedars and burnt oak trees and dead logs."

Weaponry is a big part of the Predator universe, defining both the human and alien hunters.  Royce carries a machete that is almost identical to the one wielded by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Dutch in the first movie - it’s even made by the same knife maker, Jack Crane. 

The weapons team also produced skin-pullers, spears, axes, traps, armor, and a shiv for Stans. Says Joyner: "Predators are about their hunting skill. 

"They test their ability against other species.  So, it’s not about overpowering a species with better weapons or better technology.  They’re purists.  We’re trying to stay true to the legacy of the original film."

Predators is out now.

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