Here's a suggestion for anyone planning to watch Robert Rodriguez's new family adventure film, Shorts. When the movie ends, stay for the credits and play a game - it's called: "Find a job on the film that Rodriguez didn't do".
The 41-year-old Texan wears many hats on his films, which
range from the family-friendly Shorts and the Spy Kids franchise, to the violent and sexually charged Sin City, the horror movie Grindhouse and his upcoming project, Machete, a crime-action-drama starring the unlikely quartet of Robert De Niro, Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan and Cheech Marin. For Shorts, Rodriguez officially held the titles of director, writer, producer, editor, cinematographer and visual effects supervisor. He also wrote some of Short's original music.
You can toss one more in - caterer.
"I like my eggs done a particular way," Rodriguez jokes during an interview in Los Angeles.
Rodriguez denies he is a control freak. His hands-on filmmaking approach, he says, is a matter of movie-making economics.
By wearing many caps Rodriguez cuts down the shooting schedule and significantly reduces the film's budget. That's why he is a favourite of Hollywood studios. "It is just easier that way," Rodriguez explains.
"If you are the editor, you only shoot what you need. If you are the effects guy, if there is something behind the actors, instead of moving it you know you can digitally remove it later. I know with the lighting I can hide something that would take a long time to patch up.
"You can make so many snap decisions because you don't have to have a conference every time you want to move."
Rodriguez also likes to keep his film sets a family affair, using siblings and his five children when he can, whether it is taking up their suggestions on a storyline or casting them in the film.
His sons Rebel, Racer and Rocket were cast in Shorts alongside James Spader, William H. Macy, Jon Cryer and Leslie Mann. Rodriguez's sister Tina also scored an acting gig.
Rebel, 10, was Rodriguez's inspiration for Shorts.
Rebel came up with the idea of making a movie with a structure similar to his favourite TV show, the adventure series The Little Rascals. Rebel also suggested they weave a Rainbow Rock with the magic ability of granting wishes into the plot.
Shorts is set in the fictional suburban community of Black Falls and centres on the life of 11-year-old Toe Thompson, a skinny kid who suffers daily beatings from bullies and finds the Rainbow Rock.
Rodriguez has been relying on family and friends to fill his cast since he first picked up a Super 8 film camera.
"I've always made movies that way since I was 12. My brothers and sisters were always in my movies," Rodriguez, who was inspired to be a filmmaker after watching John Carpenter's 1981 sci-fi movie, Escape from New York, said.
Spader was cast as Shorts' villainous, larger-than-life technology mogul Carbon Black, a different role and genre for the actor who just finished five seasons of the comedy-drama Boston Legal and is best known for dark-themed, small-budget films. Black heads Black Box Industries, the creator of a hand-held gadget that can perform almost any task. The employees and their children all live in Black Falls and are under the control of Black.
When it is suggested the tycoon may have been inspired by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs or other moguls including Rupert Murdoch or Bill Gates, both Rodriguez and Spader give a firm "no".
"I didn't really base it on any of those people," Spader said.
"I based it on what I read in the script. I saw where he started and where he had to go and spoke with Robert about what the hell would be in between, and that's what we came up with."
Rodriguez adds: "No, it's not Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs knows what he is doing, this guy [Black] doesn't know what he is doing.
"Steve Jobs knows how to run a very efficient company. This guy doesn't and somehow he managed to get where he is."
Rodriguez won numerous short film prizes as a teenager and his first feature film, El Mariachi, made for just US$7000 in 1992, became a hit at the Sundance film festival. How Rodriguez raised the US$7000 is a story in itself.
He agreed to be a human guinea pig, signing up to test a cholesterol-fighting drug yet to be approved by US regulators.
The tests required Rodriguez to live for 30 days in an Austin, Texas, research hospital which was perfect for the young writer-director. The confinement forced him to write the script for El Mariachi.
"It wasn't really risky, but you were stuck in there for 30 days," Rodriguez said of his life as a guinea pig.
"I did it to get paid and write a script."
It also had one other benefit.
"I cast the bad guy from there. He was in a bunk next to me," Rodriguez said. "I was like 'Hey, you want to be in a movie?'."
- AAP
LOWDOWN
Who: Robert Rodriguez, director, jack of all movie trades
What: Kids movie Shorts
When and where: Opens at cinemas on Thursday
Here's a suggestion for anyone planning to watch Robert Rodriguez's new family adventure film, Shorts. When the movie ends, stay for the credits and play a game - it's called: "Find a job on the film that Rodriguez didn't do".
The 41-year-old Texan wears many hats on his films, which
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