Robert Rodriguez has talked to Aint It Cool and confirmed that the great Nimrod Antal will be directing Predators. So what does this mean?
If I were Nimrod, I wouldn’t take the job. The director, who blew my mind with Kontroll and who managed to make a damn fine Screen Gems film with Vacancy, is going to be walking into a situation where he’s the number three (or four) guy on set. Predators will be shooting at Troublemaker in Austin, and Rodriguez has already said he wants a director who won’t mind him walking in the door, picking up a camera and shooting. There’s just no way that Rodriguez will be hands-off on this, unless he’s totally embroiled in another film. And that isn’t looking like the most probable scenario.
But there’s worse yet to be considered. This is, after all, a Fox movie. And Fox is known as the most micromanaging studio in Hollywood, earning its rep by fucking with movie after movie. And while Rodriguez wants you to think that this is the film that will take the taste of Aliens vs Predator out of your mouth, the Fox exec he namedrops, Alex Young, was the guy very responsible for those pieces of shit. Sure, Shane Salerno’s name is on the script for Aliens vs Predator: Requiem, but Young was a huge creative partner in that pile.
The positive side is that I hear that Young is maybe not so involved these days; if that’s the case then Nimrod will just be the third biggest guy on set after Rodriguez and Tom Rothman. But if Young is as involved as Rodriguez makes it sound, Antal drops to fourth place.
I would like nothing more than for Predators to be good. I would like nothing more than for Fox to break its current streak of shit. I would like nothing more than for Nimrod Antal to blow up and become a huge director. But I’m also realistic, and everything on the business side of this movie makes me very, very worried.