We’ve mentioned this movie before when it was first announced and when it it looked like Neil Marshall was set to direct it. But now, forget all that because according to the gang at Ain’t It Cool News, Robert Rodriguez, who is writing and producing Predators, has confirmed to the site that Nimrod Antal will direct the film. In addition to confirming the director, he also offered up a few details about the film, which is supposed to completely reboot the franchise and move it as far away as possible from the Aliens vs. Predator movies.
According to AICN honcho Harry Knowles, Rodriguez said this about the story of the film: “I can’t go too much into the story right now, because we’re still writing. But it still involves a very intense group of people stranded on a Predator planet discovering unspeakable horrors (that are not always from outside their group). So like the original movie, the title does have a double meaning. Aliens was a different take on the Alien idea, and an original movie in its own right, and that’s what we want to do with this.”
As for his choice of director, Rodriguez was very enthusiastic, saying: “First of all, on a personal level I found him to be an outstanding presence, a great communicator full of ideas, and upon meeting him you can immediately understand how he is able to wrangle cast and crew and get the best out of everyone. I always loved Kontroll, where he proved himself to be a very resourceful and original filmmaker. When I saw Armored, I could tell he’s also great with action and has a keen eye for casting.
Rodriguez even compared Antal to another director you might have heard of and one that Rodriguez knows pretty well. “He reminded me of Quentin [Tarantino] with how he was able to work with a group of very strong, singular actor talents and make it look effortless,” said Rodriguez. “I know he’ll be able to get the most out of what we want to be an outstanding cast. We really want to go with a character-driven action movie, because that’s what we all remember about the original Predator, and we want to take it even further with this.”
Having never seen either of Antal’s movies (although they are in my que), its difficult to know if Rodriguez is making a good choice or not. Although, original Predator director John McTiernan had only done one movie prior to directing Predator, and that turned out pretty good. Plus, he went on to do Die Hard, which was a great movie. So maybe this will turn out well too. Hey, it could happen.
