Robert Rodriguez Names “Predators” Director, Promises to Save Franchise From Itself

Good news, Action/Horror/Space Monster enthusiasts!  Robert Rodriguez has named a director for his much-anticipated “Predators” that will, with any luck, eradicate that rotten fish smell from those last two AVP movies.  Harry Knowles reports that Nimrod Antal (”Kontroll”) will head up the production, set to film at Rodriguez’s Troublemaker Studios with 60% of principal photography taking place in Austin.

Best of all:  practical Predators!  No CGI! (Or, OK, a smaller amount of CGI than usual).   Rodriguez also promises a more “character drive action movie”, so we can hopefully expect to see Mickey Rourke playing a really pensive, thoughtful Predator, smoking languidly, weighed down with all the mistakes he’s made up until now and beyond redemption or is he??

The thing about Robert Rodriguez that you’ve got to admire is that, love him or hate him, he’s always done his own damned thing.  Ever since “El Mariachi” he’s made a career out of just kind of holing up in his studio in Austin and dropping millions of dollars into a DIY aesthetic.  And that’s pretty damned cool.  With any luck, this thing will have all the pizazz and terror Rodriguez is definitely capable of, instead of descending into some schlocky one-joke thing with Cheech Marin playing the bartender.

Nimrod Antal is directing PREDATORS [AICN]