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Movies & TV

09th Sep 2018

Predator star Boyd Holbrook has a cracking story about just how sound Liam Neeson is

Paul Moore

The Predator

He’s all in favour of Liam Neeson fighting the Predator too. How good would that be?

“There’s something out there waiting for us, and it ain’t no man. We’re all gonna die.” Predator fans will definitely know this iconic quote from Billy (Sonny Landham) in John McTiernan’s action classic, but you could also use it to describe the dog eat dog world of Hollywood.

Well, dog eat dog until the Predator shows up, kills everything in the room, and then hangs the newly skinned corpses from the roof. How we love that film!

Anyway, as stated in our review of Shane Black’s new instalment of the beloved franchise, The Predator, Narcos star Boyd Holbrook is following in the footsteps of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny Glover and Adrien Brody because he’s the latest man to hunt the deadliest killers in the galaxy.

Of course, Holbrook is one of the most famous faces on the planet due to his role in the beloved Netflix show Narcos – he played the main DEA Agent, Steve Murphy, in the first two seasons – and after confirming his action credentials in Logan, the extremely likeable actor from Kentucky has now set his on The Predator.

In the film he plays Quinn McKenna, a former Army Ranger who discovers the existence of the fierce Predators but finds that no one believes they exist. Ultimately, he’s forced to team up with a band of soldiers dubbed ‘The Loonies’ and Dr Casey Bracket (Olivia Munn) as they aim to stop the universe’s most lethal hunters who are stronger, smarter and deadlier than before.

Before finding fame in Narcos, Holbrook had a few minor roles in the likes of Milk, The Host, Behind the Candelabra, and The Skeleton Twins.

2014 was a big year for the actor though as he grabbed Hollywood’s attention in the acclaimed drama Little Accidents and he followed this up with a role in A Walk Among the Tombstones – which starred Liam Neeson.

After working with David Fincher on Gone Girl, the actor said that he was vying for a role in another film which featured Neeson, Run All Night. When we caught up with Holbrook, he told us that some executives were uncomfortable with the idea of the two men working together again so soon – it was only six months between the films – but the Irish actor fought for Holbrook’s inclusion, something that the star of The Predator will never forget.

“Liam is a class act. I got to do A Walk Among the Tombstones with him and it was a pretty small part. I played a vagrant, low life and then he went off to make a new movie that he was telling me about. After hearing about a particular role, I was thinking to myself ‘I’m perfect for that’ but I worried that they (studio executives) wouldn’t put us in these two films together so soon. Liam, you know, that’s the kind of guy he is. He kept on throwing my name into the hat and he said that ‘if he’s right for this, I’ll 100% work with him again.’ It’s stuff like that which goes a long way and means a lot to me.”

Five months after Run All Night premiered, Narcos was released on Netflix and Holbrook’s life would never be the same again.

Given the fact that Neeson is now one of the most bankable action stars on the planet after the likes of Taken, The Grey and The A-Team, would Holbrook fancy the idea of going to-to-toe against the man from Ballymena?

“I would never go toe-to-toe with Liam though!,” said Holbrook jokingly.

However, the star of The Predator is open to the idea of Neeson battling the fearsome alien – if a sequel is approved.

“I’ve got his email! So we’ll see what happens,” said Holbrook.

Liam Neeson vs The Predator?

In the immortal words of Dutch: “Come on… Come on! Do it! Do it! Come on. Come on!”

The Predator is released in Irish cinemas on 12 September.