AICN Exclusive: Robert Rodriguez answers some questions about PREDATORS!!!

Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with the word from the man himself about the newly announced PREDATORS. Harry reached out to Robert Rodriguez when the news broke and sent some questions. Below you'll find how this started, get an idea of what remains from Rodriguez's '90s Predator script and he even confirms he's directing, despite the rumors circulating he wasn't. In fact, he's co-directing, but with whom I'm not sure. We know he's co-directing MACHETE with editor Ethan Maniquis and has, in the past co-directed with Tarantino and Frank Miller. Anyway, here are the questions sent forth by our own Grande Rojo and the answers from Robert Rodriguez! Enjoy!

1. Quite some time ago you created a treatment called PREDATORS, which was about Arnold's characters being shipped to the Predator home world where they were put into an alien menagerie. Now that you're producing a PREDATOR movie, is there any hope that it'll be called PREDATORS and be based upon your original treatment? And if not, what direction are you taking this and does it have a title?

Robert Rodriguez: Way back before I did Desperado, I had taken a writing assignment for a sequel to Predator. With a nod toward Cameron's ALIENS I decided to call it PREDATORS. I set it on a jungle-like Predator planet. It was just a writing assignment, so I didn't have to worry about budget constraints or how the movie would actually get made with the technology that existed back then, so I just wrote any cool thing I could come up with. Fast forward 15 years to when I got a call from Alex Young over at Fox, who had been digging around and found my original treatment. He was eager to get it made and re-invent the Predator franchise using the treatment as a guide. So he contacted me to see if I'd be interested in being involved, and it seemed like the perfect project for us over at Troublemaker Studios. I've built up an amazing team over the years at Troublemaker, and they're all huge PREDATOR fans. (I know this because Predator model kits litter our offices and workstations.) So the next stage is finding a writer and director to come in and work with us to bring it to life. Whether or not it will ultimately be based on the treatment or not is still unknown at this time.

2. The original John McTiernan PREDATOR is a brilliant action/ science fiction film. What is it that you're hoping to bring to fans of that film that will revive the franchise?

RR: PREDATOR is a masterpiece of the action/science fiction genre. Its been borrowed from so much in other movies and even video games (that will now probably be turned into movies themselves) that I liked the idea that we could have PREDATORS made relatively quickly. 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. Alex is passionate about re-inventing the series to a new and exciting level, and as a fan myself I'm all for it.

3. Will you work to get the Governor involved somehow in your new PREDATOR production?

RR: This is still the early stages, so we haven't approached him about taking part. As things develop further, we'll keep you posted, because this is obviously a fan favorite.

4. Are you going to make this a badass R-rated Predator movie?

RR: We haven't discussed rating yet, but my treatment was very “R.”

5. What is coming up next for you as director and is there any chance that you'd take the reins on PREDATORS?

RR: 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.