Familiar with Adrien Brody? He’s the skinny guy with the big nose who starred in King Kong and won an Oscar for his performance in The Pianist. Well according to Variety, he’s signed up to play the lead role in Predators – The new instalment in the Predator franchise that’s being spearheaded by Robert Rodriguez.

Variety goes on to say:

Brody is playing a character close to the one that Arnold Schwarzenegger did in the 1987 original. He’s a mercenary who tries to keep his team alive when its members are hunted by the aliens.

Adrien Brody would not be my first choice for an Arnold Schwarzenegger, mercenary type character. So I’m curious why he wants to do this. Is he going to buff up and play to the stereotype, or will he take the action hero role in a new direction? Liam Neeson seemed an unlikely action hero in Taken, but shocked everyone by playing the part brilliantly.

Anyone else shocked by this casting? Do you think Brody is a good choice? And will you actually go and see Predators?

Brody will be starring with Alice Braga, Danny (Machete) Trejo, Walton Goggins, Oleg Taktarov, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali and Louiz Ozawa. And Fox has set a release date of July 9th 2010.