del Toro In Talks to Star in “Predator” Reboot

It’s prey time for Benicio del Toro

The 49-year-old Puerto Rican actor is in early talks to star in Predator, a reboot of the film franchise in the works at 20th Century Fox.

Benicio del Toro

Shane Black will direct the film. He was actually a co-star in the 1987 original alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger, playing a member of Arnold’s team and the first to die at the hands of the Predator. Carl Weathers and Jesse Ventura also co-starred.

Black’s Monster Squad co-writer Fred Dekker is scripting the new Predator.

del Toro is also aboard Soldado, the second installment of the drug war thriller that began with 2015’s SicarioGomorra director Stefano Sollima is helming after Denis Villenueve led the first one, and Taylor Sheridan has again written the script. Black Label Media and Lionsgate are co-financing.

Additionally, The Oscar-winner has a villainous role in Star Wars: Episode VIII.

Isaac in Talks to Star in Steven Spielberg’s “The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara”

Oscar Isaac is Amblin-g for a new role…

The 37-year-old Guatemalan and Cuban American actor and Star Wars star is in talks to star opposite Mark Rylance in Amblin Entertainment’s The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara.

Oscar Isaac

Steven Spielberg is putting together the true-life religious drama to tackle after he wraps the sci-fi thriller Ready Player One.

Tony Kushner, who worked on Spielberg’s Lincoln and Munich, wrote the script adapting the David Kertzer novel, which has been in development with the filmmaker since 2008.

The true story centers on a 6-year-old Jewish boy in Bologna, Italy, in 1858 who was seized by the police and removed from his parents’ home. He was subsequently raised as a Catholic and became a priest in the Augustinian order. Rylance will star as Pope Pius IX.

Isaac had a breakout year in 2015 with a buzzy turn in Alex Garland’s sci-fi thriller Ex Machina then scene-stealing work in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. He last appeared as the villain in X-Men: Apocalypse.

Isaac recently wrapped Star Wars: Episode VIII as well as the Paramount sci-fi thriller Annihilation, which reteamed him with Garland.

Del Toro to Portray Villain in “Star Wars: Episode VIII”

May the force be with Benicio Del Toro

The 48-year-old Puerto Rican actor has been in talks with Lucasfilm and has now been offered a role in Star Wars: Episode VIII as a new villain, according to Deadline.

Benicio del Toro

No details were released regarding the nature of the role, but other name actors are said to have also been considered.

Could this suggest possible spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens? That film has three confirmed villains: Domhnall Gleeson’s General Hux, Gwendolyn Christie’s Captain Phasma, and Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren. That’s a fairly packed slate of heavyweights. The Del Toro casting news makes one wonder if one of that trio doesn’t make it to the end of the movie.

Directed by Looper and Brick helmer Rian Johnson, the still-untitled eighth installment of the new Star Wars trilogy is set for release May 26, 2017.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens hits theaters December 18.

Del Toro’s next film is Sicario for Lionsgate.