Robert Rodriguez talks PREDATORS
You probably noticed my small dig at Robert Rodriguez late last week, suggesting that he should get around to actually making movies rather than simply talking about making them but it's not entirely his fault I guess. When you look at the unfortunate situations he has had to deal with regarding studio indecisions over Sin City 2, Red Sonja and Barbarella, he is not really the one to blame as to why the stuff he talked about previous hasn't so far panned out. Or simply put, I'm willing to give him a break and actually report on what he has to say this time. AICN got a chance to question Rodriguez over the weekend on what exactly the situation is with this new Predator movie (is it a reboot, sequel, who is directing, etc) and exactly what involvment Rodriguez will have with the picture. 
Rodriguez confirmed that he got a call from 20th Century Fox's co-President of production Alex Young, who stumbled across a dusty 15 year old treatment titled Predators, a movie which Rodriguez planned as a sequel to the original film (which I believe totally dismissed the sequels) and was at one time the priority one for the helmer. Rodriguez says...
"What I'd like to do with it is expand on ideas I dreamt up back in the original treatment, that had really expanded on the universe both the Predators and other species live in. We'd create new otherworldly characters while not taking away from the draw our main Predator has. I think another reason I called it Predators was to mark it as a project that should be taken seriously by a filmmaker to make a worthy follow up to a classic, much in the way Cameron made Aliens a compelling work on its own, following Ridley Scott's Alien".According to AICN, Rodriguez's original treatment saw "Arnold's characters being shipped to the Predator home world where they were put into an alien menagerie". They also claim that Rodriguez will indeed be directing Predators, despite him dodging the question in the interview.
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. Directing wise, next up will be NERVERACKER for the Weinstein Company.In fact, AICN claims he will be "co-directing" but they don't know who his partner is, but there's a good chance it could be his new protage editor Ethan Maniquis, who he is making Machete with. One thing that makes me nervous with Rodriguez shooting "in house" as it were at his own studio's is a worry he is going to green screen this one up, which is something that could be disastrous for this franchise. It needs to feel raw, it needs to feel gritty, it needs to The Expendables meets Predator. This absolutely has to be shot guerilla style and isn't it about time we dumped the screen technology and we were treated to a movie where he can believe that two men are fighting each other, or a man fighting an alien actually took place and it wasn't just some computer coding?