Robert Rodriguez

Started by metroshane, August 21, 2003, 11:01:57 AM

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modage

Quote from: MacGuffinRodriguez Talks Madman Movie
in the tradition of obscure comic books getting made into movies before the big ones.   lxg, hellboy, etc.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

metroshane

God bless RR.  It's ok with me if he isn't your favorite director...you may think he's shit...but no one can dispute that he really cares about movie making and does a whole lot for advancing technology, inspiring students, and shaking up the industry.  I mean who else would go through as much to add all that bonus stuff to the dvd...and then give you his secrets.  And he seems like  a nice guy too.

I'm a big fan of the coen's movies, but they always seem like huge anuses in interviews...like they are afraid to give anything away.  Everything they do must be divine inspiration.
We live in an age that reads too much to be intelligent and thinks too much to be beautiful.

Pastor Parsley

I can appreciate RR for what he's doing.  He really loves filmmaking.  So much that he likes to have a hand in the entire process.  That's definitely commendable.  IMO I think he deserves the title 'Filmmaker' more so than say Spielberg just due to the fact that he actually does more of the filmmaking.

But, the reason Spielberg isn't involved in every part of the filmmaking process is he is smart enough to know what he does well and leaves the rest to others (the best that money can buy).

RR is a terrible writer, a weak director, and an amateur story teller at best.  He has his hand in everything, the problem is he's not very good at most of the jobs he does.  He does come up with very creative solutions to problems and he can make a film on next to nothing.  He should stick to that and hire out the other positions.

I love El Mariachi and without his book, I would have never even thought that I could make a film without millions of dollars and experience I didn't have.  Everytime he puts a movie out, I really hope that it's going to be good because I like Robert.  

Every film since his first has been so boring and unoriginal I can hardley watch them.  With Once Upon a Time I gave up completely on RR.  I couldn't get past the first 20 minutes.  It was downright painful to watch talented actors, under bad direction, give dialog that sounded like it was written by a 5th grader.

Ravi

Quote from: Pastor Parsley
Every film since his first has been so boring and unoriginal I can hardley watch them.  With Once Upon a Time I gave up completely on RR.  I couldn't get past the first 20 minutes.  It was downright painful to watch talented actors, under bad direction, give dialog that sounded like it was written by a 5th grader.

From Dusk Till Dawn was great fun, and Tarantino wrote that one.

I like the concept of Robert Rodriguez more than his films.  Its great that he's enthusiastic, but at the basic level of an engaging story, I don't care for most of his films.

MacGuffin

Rodriguez talks Madman and Predators

MovieHole caught up with Director Robert Rodriguez to chat about the DVD of “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” recently and ended up chatting about his future projects. Here’s the guts of that – in which he discusses “Madman”, “Predator 3” and the possibility of a “Desperado 4”.

“I'm doing a couple of things that are -- I mean I'm still getting the rights to them, but they're actually stuff that I didn't even originate, so that's going to be a lot of fun, couple of properties that I have always been a fan of and I think I have -- I've learned a lot on these last three movies experimenting with the technology and a lot of different tricks and stuff to figure out how to put these on screen. So yes, looking forward to the next couple, they'll be announced pretty soon if they go forward.

And what about the recently mooted “Madman”?

“Mad Man", we're writing "Mad Man" right now. Yes, Mike Hollard's going to come down, he just finished moving, he's coming in the next couple of weeks to come go through what we've been working up and see what he thinks.”

Rodriguez says it’s early days for the casting, but there’s a chance some of his former “Spy Kids” and “Desperado” cast might have parts. And the lead role? “I can say, but -- I know who but I can't say right now. We do have somebody.”

At one stage, there were rumours of a “Faculty” franchise too.

“You know, they said they wouldn't go make like those cheapo straight to video sequels without my approval, and I never told them to do one. But -- and I -- but that wasn't really mine, I didn't -- I didn't write it, so .... I think -- I guess they could have, but ... I think I had it in my deal they couldn't go off and do one without telling me or asking me. But ...

“I like doing sequels to my own stuff if -- because usually I've written them in a way that they can continue. Like even "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" could keep going because the man with no eyes becomes the man with no eyes in the third act. And you could -- you could picture him going on to other movies. So I try to write my scripts to where the characters go through a big enough change at the end that you almost want to see them continue.

So any chance of a “Desperado 4” then, with Johnny Depp headlining as the man with no eyes?

“I don't know. Hey, that's always a possibility. But even if you never did, you would still -- at least the audience could picture sequels. Where some movies are so complete feeling, like the "Faculty" you don't feel like -- well they killed the alien, that's it, you don't want to -- it doesn't feel like it would keep going, it feels like a complete story, that's how it was written.”

And what did ever happen to that “Predator 3” script, he was writing.

“Oh, "Predators", yes we're the "Predator 3", it's call "Predators". It was back when I was doing "Desperado". I wrote "Desperado", it was going to get made like end of September, and then "Last Action Hero" bombed, so they said we're not making any movies for a year, like next year. So I was like what am I going to do until then? So I took a writing assignment, and one of the writing assignments that was out was "Predator" sequel.

“So I said, yes I'll write a version of that. And it was just -- it was just crazy, it was huge, it was a big, big, big budget. Because I didn't have to direct it, I just had to write it. So I didn't really think about the budget, I was just like wrote this, wrote that. And it was really a cool script, it's floating around somewhere. But it's huge, and will never be made, the studio edited it and said there's no way we can make this, this would cost -- even at that time -- 150 million, and no women would ever go see this movie.

So even with “Aliens versus Predator", and you don't think there's any hope of the script getting made, it's just too big?

“It's too big, and they've now combined alien versus "Predators". So they're putting two franchises together, which is probably a smarter way to go since both of those franchises are pretty much dying down.
It's the only way to really revitalize it at all. But yes, the -- I don't think that'd ever make it, it was just too expensive.”

Talking of team-ups, why not match Desperado vs. The Spy Kids?

“No, that would be kind of cool, but then you'd have -- how would Antonio fight himself? He'd have to play dual roles. And Cheech and Danny Trejo “.

In related news, there’s whispers that Johnny Depp might be Rodriguez’s catch for “Madman” – now that’s a nice choice. Though he hinted towards that, there’s no confirmation.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

Pubrick

he seriously talks way too much.
under the paving stones.

socketlevel

and he's got to get over himself

-sl-
the one last hit that spent you...

freakerdude

I just watched Once Upon A Time and I thought it was great. Even much better was his 10 minute film and cooking school. This guy deserves a lot of credit in the fact that he's doing it all himself. I was amazed how he takes total control over what he wants to project....and does it mostly all from his home studio. Today's technology has allowed him something that was not possible before. He took full advantage of it and has used it to it's fullest.

I think that it's fairly obvious that Desperado is a sequel to El Mariachi and not a basic remake. Desperado expounds by flashing back to the original lady from EM with Antonio Banderas as she is shot and he gets his hand shot (as in EM when he was young). I think it directly relates back to EM. All three were excellent IMO and shows the progress RR has made.
MC Pee Pants

Weak2ndAct

What are the best scenes in OUATIM?  The scenes with Johnny Depp.  Why?  Because as Rodriguez admits, it's the ones that were the most fleshed out and written.

After watching the film, I truly thought that RR has just flipped his lid.  The movie's incoherent at times, lacks narrative focus, and is trying to give Michael Bay a run for his money in the cuts-per-second department.  My initial reaction was that he's trying to do to much.  BUT...

Then I watched the extra features.  Now I totally understand his perspective-- and who wouldn't do all that stuff if they had the time/money/equipment at their disposal?  The guy's got a spectacular set-up.  The time and $$$ shaved off the budget must be staggering.

But still, RR's movies are still far from perfect.  He still needs to write more fleshed out scripts (Mexico's script was 65 pages and written in 7 days), have more patience and forethought in his shot design (comparing Desperado and OUATIM is just sad), and then maybe he'll make greater films, or at least films that look fantastic with a drastically reduced budget.

The guy's definitely on to something, he just needs to cool his jets a bit.

freakerdude

I personally thought that the Depp incident was a bit too much. I guess it would be OK if you could find some humor in it, but I was rather appauled.

Besides the Depp incident in Once Upon, I thought his character and Buscmei's in Desp. were played excellently. With Banderas and Syak as his leads, I think he definitely made the right choices there too.  

Once Upon's 10 minute film school is awesome for anyone like myself who knows very little about how films are made from beginning to end.
MC Pee Pants

Pubrick

Quote from: freakerdudeOnce Upon's 10 minute film school is awesome for anyone like myself who knows very little about how films are made from beginning to end.
he's been saying the same thing for the last ten years. it was cute in the mariachi disc, especially when desperado was on the same dvd. dude needs to work on his characters more, cheap movies might make him popular with producers but he's seriously hurting his credibility.
under the paving stones.

AntiDumbFrogQuestion

I also have many friends who talk too much, but they don't play instruments, edit, write or complete a goddamn thing. Of course, I have to admit there is much Mediocrity in some of his stories, but this "speed of thought" thing he has going may actually lead to something good eventually. Of course, because thought is fast, it doesn't mean your movie and characters have to go by so fast that you don't give a fuck about any of it.
There is nothing really TOO clever about his movies as a whole, but I still have to give him respect for, excuse the expression, sticking to his guns.
GUNS! GET IT?!?!!? HAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHA! eh...

MacGuffin

Robert Rodriguez Bringing Sin City to Life
Source: Variety

Robert Rodriguez has committed to direct Sin City, an adaptation of the Frank Miller graphic noir crime novel series, says Variety. Dimension Films co-chairman Bob Weinstein has given Rodriguez the go-ahead to begin shooting next month in Austin, Texas.

Set in Sin City, the film interconnects storylines that involve the unsavory inhabitants of the town. Rodriguez has already shot the film's opening with Josh Hartnett and Marley Shelton, and he's now casting the remaining roles as the rest of the film gets under way in March.

Rodriguez has made Miller his co-director on the project and shot a sample scene to show he'd be faithful to Miller's visuals. Miller said he welcomed the chance to be so closely involved with the director.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

Weak2ndAct

Damn it!  I'm soooooooo jealous.  Sin City was one of those projects that always got filed in the 'man, when I get my shit together, I'm gonna fuckin' do that,' drawer.  

If you haven't check out the comic before, go snag those graphic novels.  They're fucking great noir.

Will Rodriguez's version be up to snuff?  Let's just hope he takes some ritalin and is able to hold a composition for more than 10 seconds.  Damn it.

modage

wow, this sounds good.  except for 'who the hell is josh hartnett playing'?  and are they shooting in black and white? (probably not) and can robert make a good movie again after 3 not-so-good ones?  how the hell can they begin shootin gnext month already?!?  dont movies usually involve PREproduction?  build sets/costumes/etc.  design things?!?  especially if its gonna have the strong visual look of the comic!  what the hell is going on here!?!
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.