Robert Rodriguez

Robert Rodriguez
Photo by Jason McElweenie.
Born	(1968-06-20) June 20, 1968 San Antonio, Texas
Occupation(s)	Film director, producer and screenwriter
Spouse	Elizabeth Avellán (divorced)
Children	Rocket, Racer Max, Rebel, Rogue, and Rhiannon
Website	http://www.troublemakerstudios.com/

Robert Anthony Rodriguez (born June 20, 1968 in San Antonio, Texas) is a Mexican-American writer, producer, musician, and film director who is known for making profitable, crowd-pleasing independent and studio films with fairly low budgets and fast schedules by Hollywood standards. He shoots and produces many of his films in Texas and Mexico.

Biography

Early life

Rodriguez began his interest in film at age 7 when his father bought one of the first VCRs, which came with a camera. He took the camera and started to make short films with his brothers and sisters participating as the cast and crew. It helped that there were ten of them (including Robert) and that these early stages provided the crucial groundwork that would lead to Rodriguez's development as a filmmaker.

While attending St. Anthony Catholic High School, Rodriguez was commissioned to videotape the school's football games. According to his sister he was fired soon after for shooting them with a cinematic style; getting shots of parents reactions and the ball traveling through the air instead of shooting the whole play. After graduating Rodriguez went to the University of Texas where he also developed a love of cartooning. His grades were not good enough to get into the school's film program, so he invented a daily comic strip entitled Los Hooligans with many of the characters based on his siblings – in particular, one of his sisters, Maricarmen. The comic proved to be quite successful, running for three years in the student newspaper The Daily Texan while Rodriguez continued to make short films.

Rodriguez grew up shooting action and horror short films on video, and editing on two VCRs. Finally, in the fall of 1990, his entry in a local film contest earned him a spot in the university's film program where he made the award-winning 16mm short, "Bedhead." The film chronicles the amusing misadventures of a young girl whose older brother sports an incredibly tangled mess of hair that she cannot tolerate. The rest of the short film is a humorous account of how the young girl tries to fix her brother's follicle monstrosity when she discovers her telekinetic abilities. Even at this early stage, Rodriguez's trademark style began to emerge: quick cuts, intense zooms, and fast camera movements deployed with a sense of humor that offsets the action.

Career

This short film attracted enough attention to encourage him to seriously attempt a career as a filmmaker. He went on to shoot the action flick El Mariachi in Spanish, inspired by John Woo films. El Mariachi, which was shot for around $7,000 with money partially raised by volunteering in medical research studies, won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 1992. The film, originally intended for the Spanish-language low-budget home-video market, was "cleaned up" with several hundred thousand dollars before being distributed by Columbia Pictures in the United States, still being promoted as "the movie made for $7,000." Rodriguez described his experiences making the film in his book Rebel Without a Crew. The book and film inspired legions of hopeful filmmakers to pick up cameras and make no-budget movies. The film and the book are widely considered important touchstones of the independent film movement of the 1990s. Many people realized for the first time that with only a little money and a lot of hard work and talent, it was possible to make a successful and popular film.

His next feature film was Desperado, a sequel to El Mariachi starring Antonio Banderas. The film introduced Salma Hayek to American audiences. He then collaborated with Quentin Tarantino on the vampire thriller From Dusk Till Dawn (he co-produced two sequels), and with Kevin Williamson on the teen horror sci-fi flick The Faculty. In 1999 Kevin Smith offered directorial duties on the film Dogma to Rodriguez, yet he passed insisting that Kevin should direct the film himself [1]. In 2001, Rodriguez enjoyed his first $100,000,000 (USD) Hollywood hit with Spy Kids, which went on to become a trilogy, with the last film released in a crude form of 3D. A third "mariachi" film also appeared in late 2003, Once Upon a Time in Mexico which completed the Mariachi Trilogy. He operates a production company called Troublemaker Studios, formerly Los Hooligans Productions.

Rodriguez co-directed Sin City (2005), an adaptation of the Frank Miller Sin City comic books; Quentin Tarantino also guest-directed a scene. During production in 2004, Rodriguez insisted that Miller direct the film with him because he considered the visual style of Miller's comic art to be just as important as his own in the film. However, the Directors Guild of America would not allow it, citing that only "legitimate teams" could share the director's credit (e.g. the Wachowski Brothers). Rodriguez chose to resign from the DGA, stating, "It was easier for me to quietly resign before shooting because otherwise I'd be forced to make compromises I was unwilling to make or set a precedent that might hurt the guild later on." By resigning from the DGA, Rodriguez was also forced to relinquish his director's seat on the film John Carter of Mars (2006) (at the time "A Princess of Mars" after the book on which it was based) for Paramount Pictures. Rodriguez had already signed on and had been announced as director of that film, planning to begin filming soon after completing Sin City.

Sin City was a critical hit in 2005 as well as a box office success, particularly for a hyperviolent comic book adaptation that did not have name recognition comparable to the X-Men or Spider-Man. Rodriguez is consequently in pre-production for a sequel, Sin City 2, which will be based on the Sin City story A Dame To Kill For and is scheduled for release in 2008. He has stated that he is interested in eventually adapting all of Miller's Sin City comic books.

Rodriguez also released The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 2005, a superhero-kid movie intended for the same younger audiences as his Spy Kids series. Shark Boy & Lava Girl was based on a story conceived by Rodriguez' then 7 year old son, Racer, who was given credit for the screenplay. The film was not a major success, having grossed 39 million dollars at the box office. No new 3D projects have been announced by the Troublemaker group, even though a mini-boom in polarized digital 3D films is coming from major studios in 2006.

Since 1998, he has owned the film rights to Mike Allred's off-beat comic Madman. The two have hinted at the project being close to beginning on several occasions without anything coming of it. While each has remained openly ethusiastic about the movie, other projects have been done first (Allred was instrumental in connecting Rodriguez with Frank Miller, leading to the production of Sin City). In 2004, Allred--while promoting his comic The Golden Plates-- announced [2] that a screenplay by George Huang was near completion, as well as that he and Rodriguez planned to shoot soon. Rodriguez has long stated that he would like for Allred to co-direct, the same way Frank Miller did for Sin City). In March 2006, it was announced that production on Sin City 2 would be postponed. Allred announced at the 2006 WonderCon that production would likely commence on Madman the Movie in Spring of 2006. Huang is actually friends with Rodriguez, who advised him to pursue filmmaking as a career when Rodriguez landed a deal with Columbia Pictures where Huang was an employee.

Rodriguez wrote and directed the film Planet Terror for the collaboration with Quentin Tarantino in their double feature Grindhouse (released in 2007). This film was a throwback to the Grindhouse exploitative cinema of the past. Grindhouse has been critically and publically acclaimed for its comedy, directing, acting, cinematography, and various other factors.

He also has a series of "Ten Minute Film School" segments on several of his DVD releases, showing aspiring filmmakers how to make good, profitable movies using cheap, inexpensive tactics. Starting with the Once Upon a Time in Mexico DVD, Rodriguez also began constructing a series called, "Ten Minute Cooking School" where he revealed his recipe for "Puerco Pilbil" (based on Cochinita Pibil, an old dish from the Yucatan), the pork that Johnny Depp's character, "Agent Sands" consumed in the film. The popularity of this series lead to the inclusion of another "Cooking School" on the 2-Disc version of the "Sin City" DVD where Rodriguez teaches the viewer how to make "Sin City Breakfast Tacos", a dish (made for his cast and crew during late-night shoots) utilizing his grandmother's tortilla recipe and different egg mixes for the filling. Rodriguez had initially planned to release a third "Cooking School" with the October 16th DVD release of "Planet Terror" but then announced on the "Film School" segment of the DVD that he would put it on the upcoming Grindhouse Theatrical DVD set instead. The Cooking School, entitled, "Texas Barbecue...from the GRAVE!", is a dish based on the "secret barbecue recipe" of "JT Hague", Jeff Fahey's character in the film.

A strong supporter of digital film making, Rodriguez was introduced to this by none other than George Lucas who personally invited Rodriguez to the use of digital cameras at his headquarters.

In May 2007 it was announced that Rodriguez had signed on to direct a remake of Barbarella for a 2008 release. At the 2007 Comic-Con convention, actress Rosario Dawson announced that because of Barbarella, production of Sin City 2 would be put on hold. She also announced that she would be playing an amazon in the Barbarella film.

Personal life

Rodriguez officially announced in April 2006 that he and his wife Elizabeth Avellán separated after 16 years of marriage. The ex-couple have five children together, all with unusual names: sons Rocket Valentin, Racer Maximilliano , Rebel Antonio, Rogue and daughter Rhiannon Elizabeth.

The media reported that Rodriguez had a "dalliance" with actress Rose McGowan during the shooting of Grindhouse, with speculation that his hiatus during production may have been due to his wife finding out. In response to the speculation, a spokesperson for Troublemaker Studios released the following statement:

Elizabeth Avellan and Robert Rodriguez were separated long before the Grindhouse production began. Their separation and subsequent divorce were very amicable and they opted to continue as planned, and to produce the film together -- a decision they informed Bob and Harvey Weinstein (co-chairmen of The Weinstein Company, distributor of Grindhouse) about prior to the start of production on Grindhouse. Robert and Elizabeth plan to produce Sin City 2 together -- with Robert directing -- for Dimension Films in the coming months. The hiatus during the production of Grindhouse had nothing to do with Robert's personal life. On April 10, 2006, after shooting for 5 weeks, Robert completed principal photography of the first phase of his segment of Grindhouse. He took a hiatus from shooting to assemble the footage he had already shot and determine his next steps in the production, which is the same successful approach he utilized with Sin City when he shot the film in two parts."

In May 2007, it was reported that he confirmed his relationship with McGowan when they appeared hand-in-hand at the 60th Annual Cannes Film Festival.

In October of 2007, Elle Magazine revealed that Rodriguez has cast McGowan as the title role in his remake of Barbarella.

According to People Magazine Rodriguez and McGowan are now engaged.

The "one-man film crew" and "Mariachi-style"

Rodriguez not only has the usual credits of producing, directing and writing his films, he also frequently serves as editor, director of photography, camera operator, steadicam operator, composer, production designer, visual effects supervisor, and sound editor on his films. This has earned him the nickname of "the one-man film crew."

He calls his style of making movies "Mariachi-style" (in reference to his first feature film El Mariachi) in which (according to the back cover of his book Rebel Without a Crew) "creativity, not money, is used to solve problems". No Robert Rodriguez movie has ever been budgeted at more than $40 million.

Collaborations

Rodriguez has a storied history of collaborations with Quentin Tarantino:

• He did uncredited directing work on Tarantino's film Pulp Fiction when Tarantino was in front of the camera acting.
• Tarantino has a cameo in Rodriguez's film Desperado.
• Both filmmakers directed segments in the film Four Rooms.
• He directed Tarantino's screenplay From Dusk Till Dawn, which Tarantino acted in. They both served as co-executive producers for the film's two sequels.
• Tarantino came up with the title for (and was initially going to act in) Rodriguez's film Once Upon a Time in Mexico.
• Rodriguez wrote some original music that was used in Tarantino's film Kill Bill: Vol. 2 and was reported to only have been paid one dollar for doing so. [3]
• Tarantino directed a scene in Rodriguez's film Sin City (also reported to be paid one dollar in return) and loaned him some swords from Kill Bill to use for the Miho character.
• They collaborated together on the 2007 double-feature Grindhouse.

He has also worked with actor Antonio Banderas and actress Salma Hayek on a number of films:

• Banderas and Hayek were cast as the lead roles in Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico of the El Mariachi trilogy.
• Both make appearances in Rodriguez's segment in Four Rooms.
• Banderas and Rodriguez collaborated for the Spy Kids trilogy. Hayek had a role in the final installment, Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over
• Hayek also had major roles in three of Rodriguez's films: Roadracers, From Dusk Till Dawn, and The Faculty
• Banderas has been promised a role in the upcoming Sin City sequels.

He has also collaborated with Kevin Williamson, filming the film-within-a-film Stab in Scream 2 (written by Williamson) and directed The Faculty based on his screenplay.

Rodriguez also co-directed Sin City with the original creator of the comic book series Frank Miller and is reported to do the same with the upcoming sequels.

Rumoured to have collaborated with Quentin Tarantino on the Mexican vampire novel The Book With No Name by Anonymous

Rodriguez composed the track "Avenging Angel" for the soundtrack of Edgar Wright's Hot Fuzz; Wright also directed a faux trailer for Grindhouse.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1991	Bedhead
1992	El Mariachi	Director, Producer, Writer
1994	Roadracers
1995	Desperado	Director, Producer, Writer
	Four Rooms	Co-Director, Co-Writer
1996	From Dusk Till Dawn	Director, Co-Producer
1998	The Faculty	Director
2001	Spy Kids
2002	Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams
2003	Once Upon a Time in Mexico		Released in 2003, however it was shot in 2001 before the actor's strike of 2001
	Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over
2005	The Adventures of Shark Boy & Lava Girl in 3-D
	Sin City	(Co-Directed with Frank Miller and special guest director Quentin Tarantino)
2007	Grindhouse	Planet Terror and Machete: Director, Writer, Producer, Composer, Editor Death Proof: Producer	Collaboration with Quentin Tarantino
2008	Machete	Director, Producer, Writer	40 minutes of the film reportedly shot. To be released direct-to-DVD with Grindhouse movies.
	Sin City 2		Currently in Pre-production; originally scheduled for 2006 release date, but pushed back to a 2008 release date
2009	Barbarella	Director	In production
TBA	Madman	Executive Producer	Currently in pre-production
2010	The Jetsons	Director	Currently in pre-production

See also

• Chingon

External links

• Robert Rodriguez at IMDb
• Cinescape - Directors Who Matter
• Robert Rodriguez - The Independents
• Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino discuss their double feature, "Grindhouse" on Charlie Rose April 5, 2007