Rumor: James Franco Might Be Wanted For Shane Black's THE PREDATOR

Iron Man 3, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and The Nice Guys writer/director Shane Black is hard at work on the script for The Predator, a reboot (or is it a sequel?) of the classic '80s action movie Predator, but we haven't heard much when it comes to casting. That changed when the new episode of Meet The Movie Press came out and reporter Jeff Sneider claimed that none other than James Franco is being pushed for the lead of the new movie.

Franco is all over the place as an actor, and the main reason I'm even writing about this is because of a decent point Sneider brings up: Franco has a good track record with 20th Century Fox right now. He starred in Rise of the Planet of the Apes for them a little while back, and he stars opposite Bryan Cranston in the big Christmas comedy Why Him?, so it's feasible the studio likes him.

While he may not be the first guy that comes to mind for a presumably beefy role like this, I can easily see him bulking up, taking the part seriously, and surprising a lot of people if the tone is handled correctly. He may not even be trying to compete with Schwarzenegger in that department, because news recently came out that the film's lead character is named Quinn Mackenna. That name alone seems to fit Franco more than something like "Dutch." That's assuming, of course, that he's actually cast in this movie, which is still very much in doubt since we've been told this is just a rumor and even Sneider himself admits "maybe Franco isn't Black's top choice." But let's play along for now and say it's true just to start a conversation about what you'd like to see from this movie in the comments.