As if we didn’t get enough amazingness in the first season of HBO’s Game of Thrones, the folks at the network feel like they need to bring in a few surprises before they start shooting season two, as they have already announced a few special directors tasked with taking on the new episodes.

It looks like director Neil Marshall, who’s no stranger to armor and action from directing Doomsday, will be taking on an episode or two of season 2. From Deadline:

Feature director Neil Marshall (The Descent) is set to direct an episode from the second season of HBO’s fantasy seriesGame of Thrones. This marks the TV debut of Marshall, who a huge fan of the adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s books.

Other directors tapped for Season 2 of Emmy-nominated Game of Thrones include top TV helmers Alan Taylor, who worked on the series’ freshman season, and David Nutter as well as Alik Sakharov and David Petrarca (Boardwalk Empire).

There is still no word on what stories from R.R. Martin’s Song of Fire & Ice will be adapted for this season, but you can certainly expect to see some of your favorite actors (mostly just Dinklage) return for the next batch of episodes.

In what is surely great news for fans of director Neil Marshall and those who love movies where armored gladiators kick lots of ass (I count myself in that group, btw), Magnet Releasing has acquired the U.S. rights to Marshall’s latest film Centurion. The film, which features Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds, 300), Dominic West (300, The Wire), David Morrissey (Red Riding Trilogy), and super hot Bond-girl Olga Kurylenko (Quantum of Solace) tells the story of Roman soldiers and Pict teribesmen who battle for control of Britain.

Fassbender stars as Quintus Dias, a fearsome gladiator who leads a group of soldiers on a raid to rescue a captured general (West). The son of the Pict leader is killed during the raid, and the Romans find themselves hunted by a seemingly unstoppable group of the Pict’s most vicious and skilled warriors. The group, led by a beautiful and deadly tracker (Kurylenko), are hell bent on revenge and will stop at nothing to see it done.

And yes, along the way a lot of blood is spilled and there are fight scenes galore. Sound awesome. As someone who’s a huge fan of Marshall’s work, particularly Dog Soldiers, I couldn’t be more interested in this film.

Magnet is launching Centurion as the 6th entry in the second “Six Shooter Film Series,” a collection of six worldwide action films which also includes Bronson, Red Cliff, Ong Bak 2, District 13: Ultimatum and The Warlords. A summer theatrical release for Centurion is planned. Rest assured, I’ll be there.

One of our favorte directors here at The Flickcast, Neil Marshall, is apparently in talks to take on another project that we’ve mentioned here before in connection with Robert Rodriguez. According to Bloody Disgusting, the man responsible for the super cool werewolves versus soldiers film Dog Soldiers, the cool spelunkers versus creatures film The Descent, and the sorta cool Rona Mitra versus everyone film Doomsday, may take on the reboot of the Predator franchise cleverly entitled Predators.

To be clear, this is just a rumor at this point. Nobody has signed anything on the line that is dotted and nobody is drinking any coffee yet (Look it up). Still, given Marshall’s experience with atmospheric creature films, his ability to make his movies look very good on a limited budget, and his experience with action, he may be a great choice to take on Predators.

But still, this is all rumor and speculation. For all we know, the studio could just be dangling Marshal in front of Robert Rodriguez to get him to commit to directing the film himself. Or, Marshall may actually be in real negotiations for the job?

No matter what the truth really is (And we may never know), things at least look to be moving forward on the Predator reboot front — something that, as a fan of the franchise who thinks it needs another chance, I couldn’t be happier about.