MOVIES

Rodriguez keeps juggling - and churning out movies

By Larry Ratliff
SPECIAL TO AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Friday, August 14, 2009

HOLLYWOOD — Robert Rodriguez is too busy juggling knives and aliens to get back to "Sin City," at least for now.

The prolific Austin-based filmmaker, former lab rat and now University of Texas grad broke away from Troublemaker Studios after the first week of production of "Machete" to talk up "Shorts," his latest feature, at a posh Los Angeles hotel last weekend. "Shorts," Rodriguez's post "Spy Kids" and "The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D" family comedy, has its regional premiere at the Paramount Theatre in Austin Sunday and opens on Friday, August, 21.

Walking away briefly from a project in production might bring some filmmakers to the brink of a nervous breakdown. Rodriguez, who has been making films since he was a creative kid growing up in San Antonio, appears to thrive on frantic activity, especially when he has a couple of sequels in production at the same time.

"It's good to slip something else in there. You can kind of take a break from it. It just gives you a much fresher approach. You can do it in less time. If you go edit a scene from one movie, then go to the other movie and come back, it's like you've been away for a year. It gives you that fresh perspective. The mind shift really helps."

"Machete," which is being co-directed by Ethan Maniquis, Rodriguez's longtime editor, will star Danny Trejo in the title role. Rodriguez has a vivid memory of meeting Trejo for the first time during casting for "Desperado," the 1995 "El Mariachi" sequel.

He had envisioned a character who threw knives and had a vest full of blade weapons.

"A couple of guys came in. I still remember, I was in a hotel in Los Angeles here. I picked up this picture of this ex-con Danny Trejo looking fierce. I was like, 'Who's this?'

"He walked in and sat down. He didn't have any lines in the movie. It was just about a look. I handed him my knife. I had this little prop knife. I said, 'Here, go start practicing with this. Just start flipping it in your hand. Just start now because we shoot in about two months.'

" 'You need to look like all you do all day is spin that thing around in your hand.' He was like, 'OK, all right.' He left and that was it. He was in from that point on."

Rodriguez says he first talked to Trejo about the possibility of making "Machete" during the filming of "Desperado," back in 1994.

"Trejo can't believe" it's finally getting made, Rodriguez says. "Every day on the set he comes up and goes, 'I can't believe we're here making this.' He can't believe the cast either."

Rodriguez has assembled an all-star ensemble to share the screen. Robert De Niro will play a senator, and other cast members include Lindsay Lohan, Don Johnson, Jessica Alba (who appeared in "Sin City"), Michelle Rodriguez ("Lost") and big-screen tough guy Steven Seagal.

"It's got a huge cast. We haven't finished casting yet," Rodriguez says.

Lindsay Lohan "is a really good actress. But also you'll have to wait and see the part she plays. If I say it, it gives everything away, so you really have to wait until you see the movie."

Rodriguez also took a break from pre-production on "Predators," his re-boot of the alien series. It'll go into production at Troublemaker Studios sometime after "Machete's" short 20-something-day production schedule wraps.

"We should start shooting ("Predators") in six or seven weeks," he says.

So how does "Sin City 2," the follow-up to the stylized 2005 action fantasy crime thriller he co-directed with former comic books writer-artist Frank Miller, fit into his plans?

"Nothing yet. We have a script that Frank wrote. But I'm really kind of busy this year. Sometime next year we'll be able to assess where we are and see if that's next or after," Rodriguez says.

Other projects in the wings include "Nerverackers," a futuristic sci-fi thriller.

"That one's next year, too. I'm writing another family film for the Weinsteins first, then we'll do that one."

Rodriguez's eyes light up a bit when he responds to a suggestion that this is a good time for sci-fi.

"Yeah, it is. ("Nerverackers") is in Mexico City in the future. I can't wait to play with that idea."

The maverick filmmaker will take an expanded producer position on "Predators," which he has called a reinvention of the franchise. According to published reports, Rodriguez has chosen Nimr?d Antal ("Vacancy") to direct.

Rodriguez admits that the decision by 20th Century Fox to turn the franchise over to him for a re-boot gives him a sense of satisfaction. The writer-director penned a script for a "Predator" sequel back in the mid-'90s that was rejected.

"It's taking the same idea that they're on a Predator planet and a group of people. They're similarities. It's just all tweaked a little bit."

Oddly enough, the recession might have something to do with the surge in activity at Troublemaker Studios, the Rodriguez/Elizabeth Avell?n filmmaking fiefdom that has emerged from a hangar at the old Austin airport during the past nine years.

"Now, with the recession, we've got studios bringing me projects. They say, 'You don't have to even direct it. You can just oversee it and put it through your studio with all your people. You seem to know how to make movies for less and get something that looks like a bigger movie at the other end.'

"It's a good business model. You are creating a good value without the cost and using a lot of creativity and people who know how to make it in that style," Rodriguez says.

"Shorts," of course, is the latest feature to emerge not only from the family-owned movie studio, but also from Austin neighborhoods and even a dry gully on the Rodriguez ranch outside of town. Set in the fictional town of Black Falls, it stars Jon Cryer and Leslie Mann as a married couple on opposing creative teams to upgrade evil business tycoon Mr. Black's high-tech do-everything device.

The kids in the cast are almost as impressive as the adults, who include acclaimed actor William H. Macy ("Wild Hogs," "Thank You for Smoking") as scientist-turned germaphobe Dr. Noseworthy.

Jimmy Bennett, who recently co-starred in "Orphan" and played the boy James T. Kirk in the "Star Trek" remake, takes on the lead kid role of Toe Thompson.

Toe, constantly bullied by Mr. Black's daughter Helvetica (Arizona newcomer Jolie Vanier), discovers a sense of empowerment when he gets his hand on a mysterious Rainbow Rock that falls from the sky and grants wishes immediately.

Rodriguez, looking down at the huge wristwatch he's wearing, says the wishing rock element of "Shorts" comes from a childhood memory that never left him.

"I remember when I was a kid, I would be by my window on the second floor of my house. \u2026 I'd put myself to sleep dreaming — and really thinking it would happen — that these aliens would come down from the sky and give me this watch, a huge watch that could make me do anything. I could become invisible. I could do magic. I could do anything. And I could go to school and do all this cool stuff.

"They never showed up, but I had that recurring fantasy just lying there waiting for them to show up. So I put that in the movie," he says.

Like "The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D" (2005), "Shorts" is inspired by one of the Rodriguez kids. Rodriguez had been introducing the vintage comedy of "The Little Rascals" to his children when Rebel, who was 6 at the time, helped dream up "Shorts."

"My third son came up to me after 'Sharkboy' and said, 'I want to come up with the next movie.' I said, 'Come up with something. I'm out of ideas right now. I just finished one.' He said, 'Something like 'The Little Rascals.' "

Rodriguez says they decided to call it "Shorts" because, "As my son explained, the stories are short, the kids are short and they wear shorts.

"That's the format that the story is told in, in a series of shorts. (Toe) tells them out of order. So it's kind of like 'Pulp Fiction' for kids. You have to figure out the little puzzle. I just thought it would be kind of a unique way of telling the story for a family film where kids get sort of a puzzle to solve as well."

Leave it to Rodriguez to be the first to fill a movie screen with a giant booger monster. And yes, the daring filmmaker says it takes some courage to feature a very large blob of nasal mucus as a plot device, even in a wild comic fantasy aimed at kids.

"Yeah, it seems at first like that might be one of the big no-nos that I usually avoid putting in my movies. You don't want to go for the fart jokes or the poop jokes, so I put a booger joke in there. It is something that I tried to do way back when.

"I have one kid who never can get his finger out of his nose. And I'm thinking, 'I'm sure other parents have this problem.' So I think it'll be fun for parents to see that. It'll be like, 'I told you. See what happens when you do that.'"

Larry Ratliff is a film critic and columnist who writes about movies and more at larryratliff.com.