In 2004, franchise mash-up Alien vs. Predator grossed over $170 million worldwide (seriously), but rankled longtime fans of each series with its PG-13 rating. Now, in an attempt to keep the merged franchise alive, 20th Century Fox is turning to a cast headlined by people with the last names Pasquale, Aylesworth, Paetkau and Horsdal for this holiday season’s follow-up, Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. (I’m not sure about the size of parts, but the most notable casting addition may actually be Shareeka Epps, the young girl from Half Nelson.)

Stepping behind the camera for departed and disowned AvP director Paul W.S. Anderson are Colin and Greg Strause, brothers with visual effects backgrounds who grew up in Illinois, where apparently English was not spoken as their first language. After confirming to Dark Horizons that the movie will be rated R (insert fan-boy cheers here), older brother Greg says of the prospects for a sequel: “I’d like to do another one but I’d like to do it in
space. The next one either has to be more of the bridge after this and
before Alien, or you could do something after Aliens. We have a
pretty finite ending to this, but we have a cliffhanger per se; it’s a
setup.” Good to know…