El Mayimbe over at Latino Review is saying that a new frontrunner has possibly overtaken Neil Marshall in the race to direct 20th Century Fox’s totally necessary Predator remake/sequel/reboot/shameless cash-in, Predators.
And that frontrunner is the American-born, Hungarian-raised Nimrod Antal, the only director in the world named after a Green Day album.
El Mayimbe is saying that Antal, who came to prominence with the dark comedy, Kontroll, in 2003, but who last directed the functional thriller, Vacancy, has jumped to the top of a list of seven directors that Fox and producer Robert Rodriguez are considering for the gig.
Marshall was being pretty strongly tipped for the post last week, but there’s no word on whether he wasn’t offered the job, or if he passed. Either way, he seems to have dodged a bullet, for the eventual director of Predators is surely onto a hiding-to-nothing.
Antal, for example, will be subject to rigorous fanboy scrutiny if he gets the job, with many pointing out that nothing on his CV, with the possible exception of his upcoming heist thriller Armored, that indicates that he can handle an effects-heavy tentpole, other than a predilection for films with one-word titles.
Then again, if this were 1986 and we were reporting on a young turk called John McTiernan taking the director’s chair on a movie called Predator, you could say much the same thing. So let’s give Antal – if he is indeed the chosen one – a chance.
Apart from that, little is known about Predators, other than Rodriguez will produce and Alex Litvak will write the script. Oh, and there’ll be more than one Predator...
But with a release date set for next year, it looks like Fox will have to get a move on, so expect to hear something concrete in the coming weeks.