Around the world peoples‘ Sci–Fi Cool–O–Meter have been exploding with the news that Robert Rodriguez, the man behind "Desperado" and "From Dusk ‘Til Dawn", will be heading up a new entry in the "Predator" series. This looks set to be a back to basics affair, after the continuing debacle of the "AvP" sideshows, by a fan for the fans.

Ain‘t it Cool News‘ very own Geek Lord Harry Knowles dropped Rodriguez aline to get confirmation on who‘s actually going to be directing "Predators". And it is in fact Nimrod Antal, the man behind the upcoming, and promising–looking, action flick "Armoured", and who last dabbled with voyeur thrills ‘n‘ spills with "Vacancy". He may have a silly name but under Rodriguez‘s auspices we‘re sure he‘ll take care of business.

Rodriguez, who is producing the project, says the story involves "a very intense group of people stranded on a Predator planet discovering unspeakable horrors – that are not always from outside their group. So like the original movie, the title does have a double meaning. ‘Aliens‘ was a different take on the ‘Alien‘ idea, and an original movie in it‘s own right, and that‘s what we want to do with this."

It was only ever a matter of time really. Paul W.S. Anderson‘s "Resident Evil" franchise starring Milla Jovovich has always made more money than sense with the quality control varying widely – the first one wasn‘t so bad but the subsequent sequels…the less said the better.

2007‘s third instalment in the series, "Resident Evil: Extinction", left the door wide open for a possible sequel (of course). And opportunity has come a knocking for creator Anderson who is indeed writing the script for "Resident Evil: Afterlife".

ShockTillYouDrop.com were the first on the scene and reports that Sony‘s Screen Gems is eyeing a September 17, 2010 release (US market).

***Spoiler Alert***

The ending of the third film saw Alice (Jovovich‘s souped up mercenary) confronted with a new horror – chiefly her cloned self hundreds of times over. In a bid to uncover the secrets behind this new biological menace, having ploughed through another horde of zombies, Alice will head to Tokyo where the last vestiges of the nefarious Umbrella Corporation are holed up.

So "Afterlife" will be a coming home of sorts for the franchise, returning to Tokyo where games publisher Capcom first produced the era–defining survival horror videogames.