I never imagined Adrien Brody playing a role that Arnold Schwarzenegger played before. But I guess I have been disabused of that idea.  Now, I can see Brody playing the heroic mercenary who battles alien hunters in Predators. This is clearly a reinvention of the Predator franchise that is being spearheaded by Robert Rodriguez.

Brody joins a long list of actors: Alice Braga, Danny Trejo, Walton Goggins, Oleg Taktarov, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali and Louiz Ozawa. A much larger cast compared to Schwarzenegger’s original Predator where it was pretty much a cat and mouse game with Schwarzenegger as the mouse and the Predator as the cat.

Brody plays a mercenary who tries to keep his team alive when its members are hunted by the aliens. There are high hopes to spring a new franchise, and Brody has signed options to return for future installments.

Nimrod Antal is directing the film, production is about to get under way on location in Hawaii with a release date set for July 9, 2010.

Obviously this is Brody’s first action hero turn, though he is best known for his Oscar-winning turn in the Roman Polanski-directed The Pianist.