Source: Moviehole | Total Film | AICN

Yup, you read correctly. Moviehole is reporting that Robert Rodriguez’s new Predators will not be a remake of the original film, but rather a sequel! Not only that, but he has reached out to Arnold Schwarzenegger recently about reprising his role as Major Alan “Dutch” Schaefer from the original film! [see Update after the jump]

They’ve written a role for him” a second source later told us via email. ‘’Rodriguez is as against the idea of a straight-up remake as much as anyone – which is why they’re considering this an official sequel to John McTiernan’s film. Like Terminator, they know Schwarzenegger’s a vital ingredient of the franchise. Ideally, Arnold will see it that way too. Ball is in his court now”.

He would not return for a main role, but would work probably for a day or two on the film if he agrees to do it. My guess is that this will probably end up like what happened with Terminator Salvation in that he probably won’t do it because he’s too busy being the Governator of California. And this time I don’t think they’ll try to do a body double with a digital Arnie head. But hey, we can hope, can’t we (I mean for non-CG Arnie)?

Predators is scheduled to hit theaters July 2010.

Update: Well, it looks like the rumors that Rodriguez contacted Schwarzenegger about playing Dutch again are false. Rodriguez himself contacted Harry Knowles from Aint It Cool News and told him this:

Online news is amazing, much more exciting than real life!
There are so many sites saying that I’m actively pursuing Arnold!

Feels like all i have to do is sit here, and let the websites do the work!

Actually, what probably happened is someone conjured that up because of my 1994 draft, that had Dutch as a main character. And then it probably just built from there.

But no, we’re still writing a new script, and although I know Arnold personally and he’s the coolest person on the planet, I have not contacted him about this at all at this time.
As promised, I’ll keep you posted on such developments since Predator is such a fan favorite.

But then again, he could very well have told someone he’d be into it. Who knows?
Personally, I haven’t heard anything. But it’s still early in the day.

-R

So, all we can do now is hope. Come on Arnie!