For the first time since being hired to bring the battle back to the jungle in which it started, director Nimrod Antal has gone on the record about Predators, his forthcoming reboot of Predator for 20th Century Fox. Starring Topher Grace, Adrien Brody, Walton Goggins, Alice Braga, Danny Trejo, Walt Goggins, Oleg Taktarov, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, Louiz Ozawa and Derek Mears, below you’ll find some talk about how big of a fan he is, along with how he chose to go a more practical route (good).
To put some of your worries to rest, Antal, who directed both Kontroll and Vacancy, is a huge fan of the entire Predator franchise – so much in fact that he recalls waiting in line when he was 14 to see the first one.

“Let me tell you, I was so much of a fan that I stood in line when I was 14 and I had the poster on my wall,” Antla tells Comingsoon in an exclusive interview.

While he would have loved to find someone to replace Arnold Schwarzenegger, he offers some logical reasons why they chose to cast Adrien Brody instead.

“I think when we cast Adrian, there were a lot of people going, ‘What?’ but at the same time, if we cast a Vin Diesel in that role or if we cast anyone who is Arnold-esque, we would have been attacked for doing that. So we decided early on to go in a very different direction as far as the casting process, but it turned out fantastic. He plays a mercenary in the film and if you look at the guys in Iraq and Afghanistan today, they’re not ‘yolked- out’ Schwarzenegger-looking guys. They’re all very wiry and thin guys, and I think it’s going to play well.”

Another obvious concern among fans is the use of CG in a Rodriguez movie. Antal understands a huge portion of the first film’s success was because of the practical Preadator costume, and locations.

“I think we both recognize that the original film was as good as it was because of the practical, because it was a guy in a suit, because it was the jungle, so we stay true to that. We were in Hawaii for a month in the jungle, so there’s going to be some pretty impressive locations.”

You can read more about the remake, along with details on a posible Arnie cameo, by clicking the link above.

20th Century Fox has slated the film for release on July 9, 2010.