RR talks Predators

After a pair of somewhat painful matches between ALIENS and PREDATORS, Fox is taking the xenomorphs out of the picture and focusing on the extraterrestrial hunters. They even gave the new project a release date of July 7th, 2010, and put filmmaker Robert Rodriguez in charge.

But Rodriguez suddenly seems pretty busy lately — he’s supposedly finally expanding MACHETE from faux trailer to full feature, and Dimension already slotted a date of April 16, 2010 for his sci-fi project NERVERACKERS, so he should be cranking on that soon. And he’s been producing RED SONJA. That’s a pretty packed schedule. What’s the real story?

AICN has fellow Austinite Rodriguez’s ear, and got some actual answers. As was previously speculated, the whole thing came about when someone at Fox dug up an old PREDATOR sequel script that Rodriguez did many years ago, and decided to get him kickstarting the franchise again. The new PREDATORS might use some elements of Rodriguez’s initial treatment (which was considered prohibitively expensive at the time), but the assumption seems to be that they’ll start fresh with a “re-invention”.

But perhaps most important is that Rodriguez isn’t directing — not entirely, anyway. As he says: “The idea is that I’d produce PREDATORS here at Troublemaker Studios, so that I can feel free to walk to the PREDATORS soundstage, pick up a camera and co-shoot the coolest scenes.”

Read the rest of RR’s ideas RIGHT HERE.