After a few years of development under director writer-director Shane Black, 20th Century Fox's The Predator is finally getting ready to move forward. We reported last month that production is scheduled to begin this September, wrapping up in December, but no cast members have been confirmed quite yet. There have been rumors that original Predator star Arnold Schwarzenegger will return to play Dutch, while other reports claim that rapper/actor 50 Cent has also come aboard. Today we have yet another rumor, which claims that one of Hollywood's biggest talent agencies, Creative Artists Agency (CAA) is pushing James Franco to star in Predator.

The news comes from the YouTube series Meet the Movie Press, where The Wrap reporter Jeff Sneider teased that CAA is pushing for James Franco. Of course, nothing has been confirmed at this time, and it isn't known if Shane Black would be interested in casting James Franco, but apparently CAA is pushing to get their client cast. Here's what Jeff Sneider had to say on Meet the Movie Press earlier today.

"Maybe he's not Shane Black's top choice, but the powerhouse agency CAA, they are pushing the name James Franco to star in Predator. He is very high on a list, that's all I know at this point. Every agency, if they're getting behind one guy, CAA's, one of the top two agencies, is James Franco. James Franco starred in (Rise of the) Planet of the Apes for Fox, and he stars in their big Christmas comedy Why Him? with Bryan Cranston, which I think Fox feels very confident about, dropping trailers last week. Fox seems to like the James Franco brand. It would be pretty interesting. I think Shane Black wants to do someone a little bit different."

Last month, Shane Black revealed the new hero of this Predator reboot will be a character named Quinn Mackenna, although the name may change. Even if Arnold Schwarzenegger does come aboard as Dutch, which still has not been confirmed, it seems he won't be the main hero, although we don't know anything else about Quinn Mackenna except for his name. Hopefully we'll start to hear more about casting as we get closer to the fall production start.

Shane Black will direct from a script he co-wrote with Fred Dekker, with 20th Century Fox handing out a February 9, 2018 release date. Predator will go up against Universal's Fifty Shades Freed and an Untitled Warner Animation Group Project, with Marvel's Black Panther hitting theaters one weekend later on February 16, 2018. We'll keep you posted with more on Predator as soon as more updates are available. Take a look at today's episode of Meet the Movie Press, with the James Franco/Predator news coming at the 28:58 mark.