Robert Rodriguez has confirmed that Nimrod Antal has indeed been given the director's chair on Predators.
Rodriguez had pencilled in a fairly strong shortlist of directors that included The Descent's Neil Marshall, but Antal ultimately won out because, Rodriguez revealed in an interview with Aint It Cool's Harry Knowles, he's "an outstanding presence, a great communicator full of ideas... great with action and has a keen eye for casting."
Nimrod's CV includes the Hungarian comedy thriller Kontroll and the yet to be released actioner Armored, but to date he's probably best known for 2007's workmanlike Vacancy.
Rodriguez seems to be planning quite a hands-on role as producer: "I lobbied to have the movie done through my studios so I could oversee it in a stronger position than a producer usually takes on... So far working with my writers and director doesn't feel very different than my collaboration on Sin City... with Frank Miller and Quentin. It's one for all and all for one."
But his comments that Fox representative Alex Young was keen for Rod's Troublemaker Studios in Texas to house the threequel, making it a "very non-studio picture" bodes rather well, given the last studio picture for the franchise was AvP: Requiem.
Plot-wise, it doesn't sound unlike Marshall's The Descent after all, as Rodriguez drops hints of "a very intense group of stranded people, discovering unspeakable horrors that are not always from outside their own group." And it takes place on "a Predator planet". Not "the Predator planet", you'll note. So it's not time to visit the ugly mofo's homeworld quite yet.
Best quote from Harry's interview? "One of the guys at Fox told me 'No one is ever going to talk about AvP again after this film, I will stake my life on it.' And he's a really nice guy, so I don't want to see him dead. Now that lives are at stake, it's no longer a job, it's a mission."