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If you're reading this, chances are you don't need anyone's approval to go see Predator: Badlands. The next film in the Yautja-led franchise, which sees Prey director Dan Trachtenberg back behind the camera, is almost certainly already on your must-see list, critics and casuals be damned. That said, we think it still bears repeating that this film was given the stamp of approval by one of the most seminal action sci-fi directors in the history of the subgenre: none other than Aliens' own James Cameron.

Yes, the man behind Terminator 2: Judgement Day and the Avatar series has been speaking up for Badlands even before the movie began filming, according to director Trachtenberg. Speaking to the folks at Zavvi, Trachtenberg revealed that a meeting between himself and The Abyss director ended in Cameron's seal of approval for Trachtenberg's next 20th Century Studios tentpole offering.

"I still can’t believe I’m saying this," recounted Trachtenberg, "But James Cameron loved Prey and Killer of Killers [...] When we were preparing to shoot in New Zealand, I was going down to work on the effects at Weta, and he came over to show what he was doing with the new Avatar – I was still incredibly nervous about my pitch for this movie, so I wanted to explain to him what it is we wanted to do with the franchise to hear his thoughts."

"We relocated from the editing bay to dinner," The Boys pilot director continued, "And when he showed up, he sat down in front of me and told me that he’d thought about the pitch for Badlands in depth, and he thought it was going to work. Hearing James Cameron say that it was going to work was all we needed to have the wind in our sails going into that shoot."

Funnily enough, though, at least some of the wind Trachtenberg was talking about turned out to be hot air.

"A month or two ago I finally showed [Cameron] the nearly finished cut for the movie," the Predator franchise lead admitted, "And he wrote a lovely letter to me afterwards. In it, he confessed: he never thought this movie was going to work when he first heard about it, and he was delighted that it did!"

Huh. I guess sometimes all a movie needs is a little bit of encouragement. Even if the encourager doesn't quite believe it themselves just yet.

Predator: Badlands stalks into theaters November 7.

The two greatest sci-fi monsters of all time are crash-landing in the heart of pop culture once again, and Popverse is here to tell you how to survive. Explore the interconnected Alien and Predator universe with:

• Popverse's Alien watch order
• Popverse's Predator watch order
• Popverse's Alien timeline
  

...and more. Keep your eyes peeled and remember, if anybody can hear you scream in space, it's us.