"My character smells like lavender, every time I walk on its just lavender," McHale jokes. "So I think it’s a really fun idea. Danny Trejo tells THR it's "very cool… "Well Robert talks about that stuff. Jessica Alba says kids "love it!"
"They love interacting and being a part of the experience. If you were a kid growing up in the late nineties, the Spy Kids films were THE films to see…and to be in too.
On returning to Spy Kids: “Walking onto this set for the first time was the most surreal moment I’ve had in a while. On the Spy Kids fan encounters: “It’s been a really wonderful experience, something that I feel we were super blessed with. On Spy Kids‘ Latino culture and cast: “[Director] Robert Rodriguez really loves his culture and so proud of it and he wants to promote that in all of his films. On the roles she really wants to go after: “The stuff that I really want to do is stuff like Colombiana starring Zoe Saldana, I’ve always loved the idea of playing the bad ass chick. Spy Kids: All The Time In The World opens TOMORROW, August 19th!
For two decades (and counting), hyperproductive director Robert Rodriguez has followed in the footsteps of his franchise-making idols George Lucas and James Cameron to become one of Hollywood’s outsider technological pioneers.
“I figured, ‘I’m following Obi-Wan! He knows what time it is!’” the easygoing auteur told Wired.com by phone from his “space station” home studio in Austin, Texas. “He doesn’t wait 10 years to adopt a new technology like everyone else.”
Rodriguez’s latest clever renovation of the industry arrives Friday in the form of Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, a “4-D” spy-fi blockbuster shot in 3-D and enhanced with Aroma-Scope, which is to say scratch-and-sniff cards in homage to the prankster spirit of schlock cinema icon William Castle and ’60s Smell-O-Vision.
It builds upon the success of its 2003 predecessor Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, the most successful installment of Rodriguez’s franchise, which helped kick-start Hollywood’s 3-D resurgence. Throughout the Spy Kids series, Rodriguez pioneered the use of high-definition digital video and CGI environments.
“I’ve always been an early technology adopter,” Rodriguez said. Adopting technology pushes the art form forward.”
Rodriguez’s next projects are even more likely to galvanize geekdom. He’s remaking pioneering animation director Ralph Bakshi and iconic artist Frank Frazetta’s groundbreaking yet underrated 1983 performance-capture fantasy Fire and Ice. Rodriguez is also assembling an all-star roster of directors to create another film version of Heavy Metal, which has yet to fully live up to its potential, despite the fact that, as Rodriguez explained, “everyone wants to be a part of it.”
Wired.com talked with Rodriguez on all that and more, including his highly anticipated sequel to Sin City and why his frustratingly postponed film adaptation of Mike Allred’s riotous comic Madman has had to dodge The Bourne Identity’s steamroller.
Wired.com: What’s it feel like to be a digital film pioneer who’s way ahead of the pack?
Robert Rodriguez: Technology plays a big part of what I do, because I try to keep our operation pretty scrappy here in Austin. I really need technology so I can compete, so I can put a movie like Spy Kids 4 out in the summer that doesn’t cost the same price as any other summer movie. Rodriguez: Oh, I’m a big tech geek. But even when I was making El Mariachi, I wasn’t cutting up film. There would be no Sin City if I hadn’t shot in digital. I tried it out for Spy Kids 3D, which was the first 3-D film in the multiplexes in 20 years….
Time and again, I’ve found technology indispensable. There’s a great quote that I always use from Pixar’s John Lasseter: “Technology pushes art, and art pushes technology.” Adopting technology pushes the art form forward. [Laughs] I use technology so I don’t have to spend any money!
[Laughs] I score the music there, I edit the film there, I use it to work with computer artists from across the country. [Laughs] It’s right in front of my bed, so I can roll out of bed and go right to work. Wired.com: Does your space station have Aroma-Scope?
Rodriguez: I didn’t tell anyone I was doing that for Spy Kids 4D. Wired.com: Dude, I must have a picture of your space station for this interview.
Rodriguez: I should take a picture of it! [Laughs] Wired.com: Spy Kids and Sin City share a cool kinship, in that they both exploded full-CGI film environments. Wired.com: Or in Aroma-Scope!
Rodriguez: I know! [Laughs] Sin City in Aroma-Scope! That would be pretty funny. Wired.com: What about the remake of Ralph Bakshi’s Fire and Ice? It’s pretty hilarious. Bakshi was filming guys climbing scaffolding, and then they would trace it.
‘I want Fire and Ice to feel like you’re walking into one of Frazetta’s paintings and living in his head.’
Wired.com: How about your Heavy Metal film? Rodriguez: I’m pretty excited about that too. I’ve always loved the idea of having a bunch of artists come together to show off their best work. I’ve always thought its potential was so great. People just love the name, and what it stands for, and that iconic logo. When I unveiled an animated logo for the film at Comic-Con, it got a huge reaction, because people still love the idea. So people are able to submit ideas to our website, and if their story wins out, they can actually be a part of the movie. Because I think fans know what they think this movie should be in their heads. Their ultimate dream version of Heavy Metal.
Wired.com: Do you have a directors lineup for it yet?
[Laughs] Wired.com: The music is key, pardon the pun.
I’m sure they’ll come up with great ideas.
Mike Allred's cult comics hero Frank Einstein has yet to make his movie debut, no thanks to Jason Bourne. But Robert Rodriguez says a Madman film is a sure thing.
Image courtesy Image Comics
Wired.com: Excellent. I would be remiss not to mention the Madman film, because I’ve been waiting to see that movie ever since I read the first issue of the comic back in the ’90s.
Rodriguez: I know, that would be so fantastic. [Laughs] Wired.com: Do you have a Frank Einstein in mind?
Rodriguez: No, we don’t have anyone yet.
Rodriguez: Things have changed so quickly. So I’ve witnessed a major evolution since my early days, when I was saying, “Screw film!” [Laughs]