Antal talks Predators

I’m excited about “Predators” – not only because Nimrod Antal (his film “Kontroll” was sensational) is directing, but because it’s seemingly being made by folks who despised the “Aliens vs. Predator” movies as much as we cinemagoers did. Oh, and the script isn’t too shabby either!

Antal, currently lensing the ‘sequel’ to John McTiernan’s action classic in Hawaii, tells Coming Soon that “the fans who may have been underwhelmed by the last two AVP films… I think they’re in for a very pleasant surprise”.

Antal’s already scoring points from the fans by not only announcing how much more violent this film will be to the “AvP” movies, but that he prefers to do practical effects, rather than using a computer to generate cinematic magic.

“I think [Robert Rodriguez and I] 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.”
Unlike the original, Antal didn’t want to cast a muscly ‘action type’ in the lead role though, and instead went for the slightly weedier Adrien Brody – and with good reason.

“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.”

Having said that, Schwarzenegger’s character from the original film (‘Dutch’) does appear, albeit briefly, in the “Predators” script, so, question is, will the Governor find time to come and cameo?
“Time will tell”, the tight-lipped filmmaker says.

Antal, whose new film “Armored” opens in the states next week, tells the site he had a hard-on for the original “Predator” when it was released in the Reagan-era.

“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. I was a huge fan,” he said.

Same here. Poster on the wall. “Predator” ticket-stub in my “ticket-stub scrapbook” (I kid you not). Framed postcard of ‘Dutch’ on the bedside table.