When I first heard that there was going to be another Predator movie I got a little nervous that someone would come in and bastardize it. Then I heard it was Robert Rodriguez (Once Upon A Time in Mexico, Sin City) and I breathed a sigh of relief. If anyone could do a franchise justice, it would be him. And with that said, I put my full trust into him and I like what I’m hearing in this article from moviehole.net:

Author: Clint Morris    Date: Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 Time: 10:34 pm

I had the opportunity to talk to someone fairly closely connected to Troublemaker studios about the upcoming ‘’Predators’’ (a flick that initially had me drowning in a pool of angst sweat … right up until it was revealed the film wouldn’t be a remake, but a sequel) this morning. I’d been making calls for a day or two, looking into a rumour we’d been tipped off to. Ab King, the renowned Schwarzenegger-spruiker of the www, got in touch yesterday and said he’d heard from an anonymous source that Rodriguez had ”reached out to Schwarzenegger” in recent days. But even Ab couldn’t be sure, so I promised I’d look into it. I finally got onto someone in-the-know this morning, who confirmed that Rodriguez is indeed courting Schwarzenegger for the movie – but so far it’s a one-way conversation.

“Robert’s camp has just reached out to Arnie’s [camp]”, we were informed. “But they haven’t had a response yet”.

Now that doesn’t mean Arnie’s blocking Rodriguez’s calls, nor does it mean he’s waiting for a bag of cash to be transferred to a locker at Union station, it simply means the guy is busy (being Governor) and hasn’t had a chance to get back to Rodriguez yet. Obviously, with the start date coming up pretty quickly on the project, they’re going to want an answer sooner rather than later but there’s still time for Arnie to agree to lend his, er, canons to the movie.

“They’ve written a role for him” a second source later told us via email. ‘’Rodriguez is as against the idea of a straight-up remake as much as anyone – which is why they’re considering this an official sequel to John McTiernan’s film. Like Terminator, they know Schwarzenegger’s a vital ingredient of the franchise. Ideally, Arnold will see it that way too. Ball is in his court now”.

Schwarzenegger would reprise his role as Major Alan “Dutch” Schaefer, the canon-armed Special Forces leader who took on the “ugly mother-fucker” in the Jungle back in the Reagan-era.

Dutch won’t be the main character in the film, but he will play a part (again, if Schwarzenegger agrees) in the film. I’m guessing it’d be a day or two’s work for the Oak at best.

Interestingly enough, Schwarzenegger was asked to cameo as Dutch in Stephen Hopkins’ poorly-received “Predator 2” (1990) but knocked back the offer (the Dutch character was rewritten; Gary Busey took his place). That was more to do with script issues than anything else I believe – something that likely won’t be an issue this time around.

“The script is terrific… I hear. It’s partly the old Predators script Rodriguez did, but mostly new stuff by [Alex] Litvak. And it’s violent – like the original. Everybody here at [name removed] has pointed out how much better it is than [Paul W.S] Anderson’s abomination. Doesn’t sound like there’s any reason to worry”.

I actually like Rodriguez’s first draft of “Predators” (though I do understand why much of it has been rewritten) – it’s big and expansive; packed with action. Glad they’re actually going down that route, rather than rebooting the first film.

“Predators”, produced by Rodriguez, will hit theatres July 2010.