About Me
Early life A native of San Antonio, Texas, I began my interest in film at age 7 when my father bought one of the first VCRs, which came with a camera. I took the camera and started to make short films with my brothers and sisters participating as the cast and crew. It helped that there were ten of them (including Robert), and these early stages provided the crucial groundwork that would lead to my development as a filmmaker. While attending St. Anthony Catholic High School, I was commissioned to videotape the school's football games. According to my sister I 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 I went to the University of Texas where I also developed a love of cartooning. My grades were not good enough to get into the school's film program, so I invented a daily comic strip entitled Los Hooligans with many of the characters based on his siblings – in particular, one of my sisters, Maricarmen. The comic proved to be quite successful, running for three years in the student newspaper The Daily Texan while I continued to make short films. I grew up shooting action and horror short films on video, and editing on two VCRs. Finally, in the fall of 1990, my entry in a local film contest earned me a spot in the university's film program where I made the award-winning 16 mm short, "Bedhead", which is available for viewing online. 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, My 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 me to seriously attempt a career as a filmmaker. I went on to shoot the action flick El Mariachi in Spanish. 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". I described my experiences making the film in my 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. My next feature film was Desperado, a sequel to El Mariachi starring Antonio Banderas. The film introduced Salma Hayek to American audiences. RodrÃguez went on to collaborate with Quentin Tarantino on the vampire thriller, From Dusk Till Dawn (he co-produced two sequels), and with Kevin Williamson on the horror film The Faculty. In 1999 Kevin Smith offered directorial duties on the film Dogma to me, yet I passed insisting that Kevin should direct the film myself. In 2001, I enjoyed my 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. I operate a production company called Troublemaker Studios, formerly Los Hooligans Productions. I co-directed Sin City (2005), an adaptation of the Frank Miller Sin City comic books; Quentin Tarantino guest-directed a scene. During production in 2004, I insisted that Miller direct the film with me because I 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). I 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, I was forced to relinquish my director's seat on the film John Carter of Mars (2006) for Paramount Pictures. I 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. I’am currently 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. I have stated that I’am interested in eventually adapting all of Miller's Sin City comic books.
I 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 my 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, I have 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. However, other projects have been completed first (Allred was instrumental in connecting myself with Frank Miller, leading to the production of Sin City). In 2004, Allred, while promoting his comedy, The Golden Plates, announced that a screenplay by George Huang was near completion. 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 2006. Huang is actually friends with myself, who advised me to pursue filmmaking as a career when I landed a deal with Columbia Pictures where Huang was an employee. I 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 was critically and publically acclaimed for its comedy, directing, acting, cinematography, and various other factors. I also have a series of "Ten Minute Film School" segments on several of his DVD releases, showing aspiring filmmakers how to make good, profitable movies using inexpensive tactics. Starting with the Once Upon a Time in Mexico DVD, I began creating a series called, "Ten Minute Cooking School". where I revealed my recipe for "Puerco Pilbil" (based on Cochinita Pibil, an old dish from Yucatan), the same food Johnny Depp's character, "Agent Sands" ate 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 I teach the viewer how to make "Sin City Breakfast Tacos", a dish (made for his cast and crew during late-night shoots) utilizing my grandmother's tortilla recipe and different egg mixes for the filling. I 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 I 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, I was introduced to this by director George Lucas, who personally invited me to use the digital cameras at Lucas' headquarters- In May 2007 it was announced that I 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.
Collaborations I have a storied history of collaboration with my friend Quentin Tarantino: I did uncredited directing work on Tarantino's film Pulp Fiction when Tarantino was in front of the camera acting. -Tarantino has a cameo in my film Desperado. -We both directed segments in the film Four Rooms. -I directed Tarantino's screenplay From Dusk Till Dawn, which Tarantino acted in. We both served as executive producers for that film and its two sequels. -Tarantino came up with the title for (and was initially going to act in) My film Once Upon a Time in Mexico. -I 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. -Tarantino directed a scene in my film Sin City (also reported to be paid one dollar in return) and loaned me some swords from Kill Bill to use for the Miho character. -They collaborated together on the 2007 double-feature Grindhouse. I have 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 my segment in Four Rooms. -Banderas and myself 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 my films: Roadracers, From Dusk Till Dawn, and The Faculty -Banderas has been promised a role in the upcoming Sin City sequels. I 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. I composed the track "Avenging Angel" for the soundtrack of Edgar Wright's Hot Fuzz; Wright also directed a faux trailer for Grindhouse. Robert had a special appearance in the sitcom George Lopez, starring the comedian of the same name, in the episode "George Buys a Vow" as part of the band in the wedding ceremony. Lopez also starred in my film Sharkboy and Lavagirl.
