It was just a few days ago that the rumor got started about McG directing R.I.P.D., an adaptation of a graphic novel that will star Ryan Reynolds as a dead cop who's still on the job. Fanboys still reeling from Terminator: Salvation may have spent the last week freaking out, but it might have all been premature. The LA Times is now reporting that Red director Robert Schwentke is being considered for the job after McG dropped out of the running.

Schwentke's name has been showing up all over the place as positive buzz building about Red; last week he was eyeing the adaptation of the true-life story Shadow Divers, and even then he had a couple of other projects in the hopper. R.I.P.D. comes with the added benefit of a star already attached, and since Universal wants to start pre-production immediately to prepare for a shoot next summer, Schwentke would have to ditch anything else in order to get started.

Watching Schwentke's name pop up for all of these action projects is particularly fascinating since his previous film was The Time Traveler's Wife, and before that it was the suspense thriller Flightplan. It's another case of no one in Hollywood being worth more than their more recent project, but it also suggests that Red is just as much manic fun as it looks, and Schwentke's action skills are in demand as a result.