Latest news with #Predators
Daily Record
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
MOVIE REVIEW: Does animated life suit the titular creature in 'Predator: Killer of Killers?'
Awesome anthology takes in different time periods and eaves franchise in exciting place for the future. For its sixth solo outing - and eighth overall flick if you include clashes with Aliens - the Predator enters the world of animation for the first time. Helmer Dan Trachtenberg is bridging the gap between his well received 2022 entry Prey and Predator: Badlands, due for release later in the year, with this anthology tale. Three of the fiercest warriors in human history take on the titular beasts across different time periods which take in Vikings, samurai and World War II pilots. Using animation allows Trachtenberg to go to town with historically accurate surroundings and weapons as well as graphic, gory kills that would otherwise possibly fall foul of the censors. Killer of Killers builds on the series' selling point of seeing Predators take on humans in different environments, which really travelled to an exciting world in Prey after the previous more modern settings. Perhaps the anthology's greatest flaw is that it peaks with its first instalment - the epic The Shield. Viking warrior Ursa is a truly wonderful warrior who is gifted remarkable depth - involving her father and son - considering her solo tale lasts less than half-an-hour. The 17th-century Japan-set The Sword is visceral and shy of dialogue as brothers Kenji and Kiyoshi collide with each other and a Predator. The Bullet is a long way off bad but suffers in comparison to its chapter predecessors, with WWII pilot Torres full of too many wisecracks, although it's cool to see an airborne battle involving the alien antagonist. Without wishing to spoil too much, the epilogue sees Predators square off with more than one foe in a gladiator arena-like sequence containing flowing blood and self-sacrifice. However, it's how this comes about, and a jaw-dropping mid-credits coda, that really gets the excitement flowing for where the franchise could go from here. Another triumph for Trachtenberg, Killer of Killers keeps the Predator series going in the right direction - and leaves you counting down the days until Badlands hits cinemas. ● What is your favourite Predator film? Pop me an email at and I will pass on your comments – and any movie or TV show recommendations you have – to your fellow readers. ● Predator: Killer of Killers is streaming now on Disney+.
New York Times
3 days ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Wild trade center Freddy Gaudreau to Kraken for fourth-round pick: Where it leaves the depth chart
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Wild, who are in the market to improve their center depth this summer, traded a center away on Thursday. In what was clearly a contract dump, they sent Freddy Gaudreau to the Seattle Kraken for a fourth-round pick. The Wild get out of the remaining three years of the 32-year-old's contract at $2.1 million annually. Gaudreau had a 15-team no-trade list. Advertisement Gaudreau, who originally signed a two-year, $2.4 million contract with the Wild in 2021, earned a five-year, $10.5 million extension two years ago on the night of the 82nd game of the season against the Nashville Predators, his original NHL team. He scored 19 goals and 19 assists in 82 games that season. After a tough, injury-plagued 2023-24 season in which he scored five goals and 10 assists in 67 games, Gaudreau bounced back with 18 goals and 37 points in 82 games this past season. However, he didn't have a point in six playoff games. Somehow traded for a 4th — dom 📈 (@domluszczyszyn) June 26, 2025 Overall, Gaudreau scored 56 goals and 134 points in 307 games for the Wild and has scored 61 goals and 152 points in 410 games with the Predators, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Wild. By trading Gaudreau for a pick, the Wild increased their offseason salary cap space to roughly $17.7 million, assuming roster hopefuls Liam Ohgren, Zeev Buium, David Jiricek, Jesper Wallstedt and Danila Yurov all make the opening night roster. The Gaudreau trade now gives #mnwild 5 draft picks this weekend (Saturday) Round 2 – No. 52 overallRound 4 – No. 102 overall (from SEA)Round 4 – No. 121 overall (from TOR)Round 5 – No. 141 overall (from CBJ)Round 6 – No. 180 overall — Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) June 26, 2025 This also creates a further opening for the Wild to pursue a center this offseason. Their current centers are Joel Eriksson Ek, Marco Rossi, Ryan Hartman, who can also play wing, and Yurov. Two players the Wild have inquired about, according to league sources, are the New York Islanders' Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who has one year left on his contract at $5 million, and Colorado's Charlie Coyle, the former Wild forward who has one year left on his contract at $5.25 million. Advertisement Pageau is especially intriguing. He's a perennial 40-point guy who is excellent in the faceoff circle (59.6 percent last season and over 50 percent every year of his career) and on the penalty kill. Some free-agent bottom-six centers the Wild could also pursue regardless of whether they shoot left or right include Sean Kuraly, Nico Sturm, Radek Faksa, Colin Blackwell, Luke Kunin and Nick Bjugstad. Pending restricted free agents: Rossi, Michael Milne, Graeme Clarke, Adam Raska, Luke Toporowski. Pending unrestricted free agents: Gustav Nyquist, Justin Brazeau, Devin Shore, Travis Boyd, Tyler Madden. Roster hopefuls: Yurov ($950,000), Ohgren ($886,666), Vinnie Hinostroza ($775K), Brendan Gaunce ($775K), Ben Jones (775K), Hunter Haight ($865,833), Riley Heidt ($950K), Caedan Bankier ($867,500), Rasmus Kumpulainen ($897,500), Milne*, Clarke, Raska, Toporowski. Pending restricted free agents: Declan Chisholm, Ryan O'Rourke. Pending unrestricted free agents: Jon Merrill, Cam Crotty. Roster hopefuls: Buium ($966,667), Jiricek ($918,333), Carson Lambos ($863,334), David Spacek ($862,500), Jack Peart ($925K), Kyle Masters ($865,000), Stevie Leskovar ($860,000), O'Rourke. Pending unrestricted free agents: Marc-Andre Fleury, Dylan Ferguson, Troy Grosenick. Roster hopefuls: Samuel Hlavaj ($875K), Riley Mercer ($819,167) Cap charges (including Ohgren, Buium, Jiricek, Wallstedt, Yurov): $75,021,666 Projected dead-cap buyout charges, bonus overages: $2,766,666 Projected salary cap for 2025-26 season: $95.5 million Projected salary-cap space: $17,711,668 (excludes re-signings) Sources: The Athletic sources and trade Freddy Gaudreau to Kraken for
Associated Press
5 days ago
- Sport
- Associated Press
Nashville Predators hire former Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson as assistant
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Nashville Predators filled out their coaching staff by hiring former Chicago Blackhawks coach Luke Richardson as an assistant on Tuesday. Richardson joins Derek MacKenzie, Darby Hendrickson and goaltending coach Ben Vanderklok on coach Andrew Brunette's staff. General manager Barry Trotz said Richardson brings a wealth of NHL experience as both player and coach. 'We believe he will be a valuable new voice and set of eyes — not just for our defensemen, but for our coaching staff,' Trotz said. 'His strong character, leadership, perspective as a former NHL head coach and ability to connect with both young and veteran players will elevate our team on and off the ice.' Richardson replaces Todd Richards who joined Nashville in October 2020. Richardson coached the Blackhawks before being fired Dec. 5, 2024, early in his third season. He coached Connor Bedard and defensemen Kevin Korchinski and Alex Vlasic. He also has been an assistant coach with Montreal, the New York Islanders and Ottawa. Richardson played 1,417 games as a defenseman in 21 NHL seasons. Nashville's assistant coaches all have played in the NHL over a combined 3,656 regular season games. ___ AP NHL:
The Sun
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Predator: Killer of Killers spans time for brutal hunts
FROM one hunt to the next, each bloody battle across time and space, be it against man or some other form of sentient life across the galaxy, the Yautja relish in their primordial culture of hunting prey they deem equal. Better known as 'the Predator' in pop culture, each wound, feat, kill and trophy collected serves as war medals for a Yautja's prowess. Like the extraterrestrial apex predators, director Dan Trachtenberg too has claimed another gory, blood-soaked trophy with Predator: Killer of Killers. Set across different time periods, Killer of Killers opens in the frigid northern oceans, as the mighty Ursa (Lindsay LaVanchy) leads a horde of Viking warriors into the stronghold of the Krivich tribe, seeking to take the head of its leader. Almost a thousand years later, the ninja Kenji (Louis Ozawa) launches a lone attempt to defeat his brother Kiyoshi, a daimyo, in his castle. Fast forward several hundred years from then, during World War II, fighter pilot John Torres (Rick Gonzalez) finds his squadron under aerial attack and takes to the skies to fight back against someone he believes is not on either the Allies' or Axis Powers' side in the war. The three storylines eventually converge on a planet that a group of Predators have turned into a coliseum. Past meets Predator Three years ago, Trachtenberg's Prey was released to wide acclaim, with one of the big positives being the film's setting, which took the film's Predator to 18th century America, pitting a hulking Yautja against Native American warriors from the Comanche tribe. Trachtenberg stripped the bloated excess that recent films in the franchise had and brought it back to the gritty basics of the first Predator from 1987. It was also a long-held dream of franchise fans brought to life. A dream born from a single question: 'What would a Predator film look like if it took place during a bygone era etched within history books?' For Killer of Killers, Trachtenberg revisits the same concept, bringing the story to not just one time period, but three separate ones from different corners of the planet. The film is also inspired by and expands the concept behind 2010's Predators, where humans are abducted, brought to a different planet, then hunted by the Yautja as wild game. Thrilling combat, thin characters LaVanchy, Ozawa and Gonzalez deliver great vocal performances for their distinct characters, but beyond their self-contained story segments, the three lead characters get almost no development. They are introduced and almost immediately face off against the Yautja, before Killer of Killers barrels off into space. In that regard, despite the solid action sequences that use each character's distinct fighting styles to great effect, the film is unfortunately lacklustre in substance compared with the much meatier Prey. However, it may also be intentional as Trachtenberg might be using Killer of Killers as a vehicle to either lay the groundwork or introduce concepts that he will expand more upon in the upcoming live-action film Predator: Badlands, which is set for release later this year. Predator: Killer of Killers is streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
The Sun
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Predator Instincts
FROM one hunt to the next, each bloody battle across time and space, be it against man or some other form of sentient life across the galaxy, the Yautja relish in their primordial culture of hunting prey they deem equal. Better known as 'the Predator' in pop culture, each wound, feat, kill and trophy collected serves as war medals for a Yautja's prowess. Like the extraterrestrial apex predators, director Dan Trachtenberg too has claimed another gory, blood-soaked trophy with Predator: Killer of Killers. Set across different time periods, Killer of Killers opens in the frigid northern oceans, as the mighty Ursa (Lindsay LaVanchy) leads a horde of Viking warriors into the stronghold of the Krivich tribe, seeking to take the head of its leader. Almost a thousand years later, the ninja Kenji (Louis Ozawa) launches a lone attempt to defeat his brother Kiyoshi, a daimyo, in his castle. Fast forward several hundred years from then, during World War II, fighter pilot John Torres (Rick Gonzalez) finds his squadron under aerial attack and takes to the skies to fight back against someone he believes is not on either the Allies' or Axis Powers' side in the war. The three storylines eventually converge on a planet that a group of Predators have turned into a coliseum. Past meets Predator Three years ago, Trachtenberg's Prey was released to wide acclaim, with one of the big positives being the film's setting, which took the film's Predator to 18th century America, pitting a hulking Yautja against Native American warriors from the Comanche tribe. Trachtenberg stripped the bloated excess that recent films in the franchise had and brought it back to the gritty basics of the first Predator from 1987. It was also a long-held dream of franchise fans brought to life. A dream born from a single question: 'What would a Predator film look like if it took place during a bygone era etched within history books?' For Killer of Killers, Trachtenberg revisits the same concept, bringing the story to not just one time period, but three separate ones from different corners of the planet. The film is also inspired by and expands the concept behind 2010's Predators, where humans are abducted, brought to a different planet, then hunted by the Yautja as wild game. Thrilling combat, thin characters LaVanchy, Ozawa and Gonzalez deliver great vocal performances for their distinct characters, but beyond their self-contained story segments, the three lead characters get almost no development. They are introduced and almost immediately face off against the Yautja, before Killer of Killers barrels off into space. In that regard, despite the solid action sequences that use each character's distinct fighting styles to great effect, the film is unfortunately lacklustre in substance compared with the much meatier Prey. However, it may also be intentional as Trachtenberg might be using Killer of Killers as a vehicle to either lay the groundwork or introduce concepts that he will expand more upon in the upcoming live-action film Predator: Badlands, which is set for release later this year.
