UPDATE: Robert Rodriguez Grabs 'Machete' and Fights Some 'Predators'

This time they f**ked with the right Mexican!

When I wrote about Eli Roth cooking up a feature helping of Thanksgiving, I couldn't help but think about Machete, and wish he was heading for the big screen. Just a week later, my wish has been granted! If only that could happen every day. Variety reports that Robert Rodriguez has written a script for Machete, and hopes to grab Danny Trejo and start production this June in Austin. But he won't helm this alone; this time around, he's grabbing longtime editor Ethan Maniquis to co-direct.

This blissful non-studio film (his first since El Mariachi) will follow Machete, a Mexican ex-Federale who hides as a day laborer until he gets "double-crossed by a corrupt state senator." He is, of course, also an expert knife-wielder and dude who can do some stunning things with a bike and a gun.

But that's not all. We've all been wondering what Rodriguez has been doing when he should have been making Sin City, Barbarella, and all the other projects that he's talked about. He's been writing Machete, and, well ... Predators -- yes, a sequel to Arnold Schwarzenegger's 1987 alien fest Predator. There's no further word on the project right now, so I'll leave it up to you to imagine what RR will make of it.

Are these the projects you want Rodriguez focusing on? Or is there something else you want to see him busy himself with?

UPDATE: 20th Century Fox has set a July 7, 2010 release date for Robert Rodriguez's Predators, meaning this will be one of next summer's biggest films. Rodriguez, while producing, will not write or direct. Will it be R-rated, or will they try to get a PG-13 out of it to appeal to a wider audience during the peak of the summer movie season? These are things we'll definitely be talking about ... [via erc Box Office]