Exclusive Interview with filmmaker Robert Rodriguez

Movie director Robert Rodriguez is one of our favourites. His resume includes Desperado, Sin City, The Faculty, Spy Kids, From Dusk Till Dawn, Planet Terror and Machete, and eclectic range of genre films that all hit the right spot.

Rodriguez is somewhat of a maverick film director. He’s not one to play by the expected rules of the movie world, be that in what he puts on the screen or how he interacts with his peers. During his career he has left both the screen writers and directors guild in favour of blazing his own path. His latest venture has been to create his own television network ‘El Rey’ which caters to a Latin American audience.

He used the platform to bring back a project from his past From Dusk Till Dawn; the film starred George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino as brothers and criminal Seth and Richard Gecko. Whilst on the run from the law they kidnapped Harvey Keitel, his son, and his daughter played by Juliette Lewis. They then holed up in a lovely little bar called ‘The Titty Twister’ which just so happened to be run by an alluring and vampiric (literally) Salma Hayek. The movie achieved instant cult status and spawned several sequels / prequels. Not content that the source material had been fully explored Rodriguez has returned to the characters who now feature in a television series version with the same name.

Production has just started on the third series and Rodriguez took time out from his busy schedule to speak exclusively with us. We spoke about what we can expect from the next season, when Battle Angel: Alita will start shooting and why he always knew that Danny Trejo would be a star.

From Dusk till Dawn is one of your earlier works, what is it about the project that has kept you interested all these years?

No, in fact I’m staring at the matte painting from the end of the movie right now, it’s in my office. It’s the very last shot with the temple. I remember putting that temple in the shot, it wasn’t in the script, but I wanted to leave the audience with a cool mythology that they could think about, but I didn’t ever think I’d be able to revisit it and finish that story. Then I got this television network and I wanted to do a TV series and it was just a natural thought process to go after this property, continue what I started so long ago, twenty years ago. It’s been one of the greatest gifts that we could’ve given ourselves way back then, planting that seed. Now we can really dig into and turn it to now we’re in our third season. It’s really exciting. I’m glad I did that back then. You do something that you think is just going to be a one-off movie like I did back then and instead it turns out to basically be your career.

The film and the series deal with vampires, it’s a movie monster that has had more coverage than any other. Why do you think we’re still fascinated by them?

Their still rich for storytelling. It’s got all the elements, it’s got scares, sexuality and seductive-ness, and it’s just constantly been a source of inspiration for artists which is why they keep it alive. They can always find a new spin to it (laughs). In ours we turn them into Culebras which is sort of snake version of them as we’ve found in Mesoamerican mythology. There’s always a way to refresh a classic idea, give it a new spin and if audiences still dig it then artists will still do it.

This is a much better interpretation than say the sparkly ones…

Ours are definitely one that I like and that I’m a fan of. I enjoyed putting my own spin on it. Everybody’s got their spin, I remember Quentin [Tarantino] was very excited that he added to vampire lore by making them squishy and enable you to hit them with just a chair and they could burst apart. He liked that he added that to the original film. So when people get that chance to work in the vampire arena it’s fun to add whatever they can to it, whether that be golden and shiny or in our case, carnivorous snake teeth.

Films these days are more aimed towards the family market and it’s television that has gotten darker – why do you think the more violent content has shifted to the smaller screen?

Television has been enticing people out of theatres since the beginning of television. The way they do it is by going after subject matter that can’t be given in such a regular diet at the movies. I think horror lends itself really well to television because people want to come back every week and get scared or freaked out. So horror in particular as you see in The Walking Dead and such seem to do so much better in television then they would in a film. I think a lot of the films wouldn’t be as big as their television counterparts. You take advantage of the character and world building and the steady scares and people will come back week to week for that.

You again worked with Danny Trejo, he has a massively loyal fan base, what is it about him that makes him so popular?

He’s just the most likeable guy, and yet has this completely memorable face and persona. I saw it when I first worked with him on Desperado. The whole town, they didn’t even know who he was, but they would circle around him. They thought for sure that he was star of the movie. They saw the movie being filmed on this little Mexican street and I could see that he had a very magnetic personality and I kept putting him in movies from then on.

I even told him about Machete way back then, twenty-five years ago, I was like ‘Hey we’re going make this movie called Machete and you’ve gotta to be in it!’ I could just tell he had this magnetism which is very rare. Something that you can’t quite put your finger on, but people see him and they like him, they admire him and they fear him and they laugh because he’s funny. He’s just a cool guy.

Will we ever get Machete Kills Again in Space?

Hmm…that’s the eternal question. It’s possible, it’s definitely possible.

After watching that trailer at the end of the second film I was ready to watch it straight away…

Danny’s always calling saying “when are we going to start? When are we going to start?”

The first series (From Dusk Till Dawn) had appearances from James Remar, and William Sadler, the second series features Jeff Fahey, Gary Busey and Demi Lovato – how do you constantly get all these big names?

You know they’re friends of mine, people I’ve met or worked with over the years. You can offer them a role that they can come in and out, shoot pretty quickly, and give them an experience and a role that they’ve never got to play before. What’s really cool about television is that you can work with a various amount of people who you’ve always wanted to work with and have a blast and knockout a bunch of episodes. Then they can go away and go get other jobs, they don’t have to be stuck there. That’s part of what I’ve offered. They come in and do something cool and then they can move on.

Are there any big names lined up for series 3?

Can’t say that yet, we have to announce them at certain times, but yeah, we’re getting some cool people in.

Can you give us any hints as to where the third series will venture?

It gets big. It feels like a third act. A lot of the stuff that we set up in season two pays off really big time. There’s gonna be a lot more creatures for instance, practical creatures which I’m really excited about. That’s been fun. I’ve just finished the final mix of my episode for the beginning of the season and its awesome! It just looks huge! We’re really going for broke on the third season (laughs) because you have to. You see season two and how that ends and you have to crank it up, so we really, really went for it. I didn’t really know if effects would be able to deliver creature after creature each week but its really looking fantastic.

You’re working on two high profile titles, Johnny Bravo & Battle Angel, how are they both coming along?

I start shooting Battle Angel really soon, probably in the next six months – that’s the plan anyway. Johnny Quest would have to be after that because Battle Angel kind of jockeyed for position. That one got in there first.

You’re working with James Cameron on that one, that’s pretty big…

Yeah, it’s the project that he [James Cameron] had always wanted to do and started working on before he made Avatar (laughs) and now he’s gotta do [more] Avatars which left an opening for Battle Angel to be made. I’ve known him a long time and we’ve talked about it and we’re both looking forwards to bringing it to life. I’ve always wanted to see his version of Battle Angel but I suppose the closest thing to that is making it for him whilst he’s busy with Avatar.

It’s exciting to work with him, he’s an amazing talent. It’s a masterclass in film-making just sitting in a room with him asking him how he did certain things and to do it. I’d pay for that experience.

The pair you of both have experience of working with low budgets. Both El Mariachi and The Terminator were made on very modest budgets, I’m guessing you guys more than most will get a lot out of the extra money. 

Yeah we’ll be very, very appreciative of the funds that’s for sure (laughs). But yeah you learn a lot from those early days on how to make an illusion happen, and how to make a story work without any of those bells and whistles. Just dramatically. So that’s a good skill to have learned that way, but definitely you want to put the money on the screen no matter how much there is.

You’re know for your culinary skills, cooking for your cast and crew. If From Dusk till Dawn was a meal, what would it be? 

It’d be Cochinita Pibil or Carne Asada. It would be a spicy, saucy meal. Lots of sauce, lots of spice (laughs) lots of meat. Red meat.

From Dusk Till Dawn season 2 arrives to buy on DVD from Monday 27th June.