Find Movies & Artists: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z #

ROBERT RODRIGUEZ | PRODUCER

Producer Talks Re-making 'Predators'


Explore More
 

Producer Robert Rodriguez Talks Re-making "Predators"

 

(Robert Rodriguez) This one we wanted to do sort of the same, go back to a character based movie where the "Predators" could easily just be the characters themselves.  They could kill each other off before they ever got to meet one of the creatures.  So we wanted to have that sort of tension within the group.  Uneasy alliances...and get it to a point to where you almost forget that there's going to be creatures in the movie, because you're so interested in the story that's going on.  And when you add the creatures to the mix then it's even better.

 

(RR) It was really important for me that each character felt like they could be the star of their own movie.  That they were rich enough, even if they only said a few lines, that  you could picture a whole motion picture of just that character before they got the planet and if you were just to follow them.  That was a real criteria for me.  And then to see how they would mix together, and how they would have that uneasy alliance.  Either almost kill each other or become friends, and I don't think anyone really ever becomes friends in the movie.  It's just more out of the situation.  People are very professional, very bold, and very strong, and they're all predators.  So you put a bunch of alphas together and you get to see what happens.

 

(RR) For this script I brought in a couple of writers.  They had written a script called Medieval where they would take these archetype characters and put them together, and they did it in a medieval times...so I was attracted to that idea of just bringing in characters from different walks of life, different areas of the world, dropped on this planet because they were the best at what they did.  So you would have a very mixed group of talent as killers so to speak.

 

(RR)The idea with the film was to not make it feel like it was...the fifth or sixth movie in a series, but the first.  It's really a re-boot, or just a re-imagining, or however you want to call it.  It just feels like you're watching this for the first time, this series for the first time.  By starting from the beginning, not starting with a lot of...just numbing action and pun action...really getting into the characters of...both the characters of the actors and the characters of the predators themselves, and giving audiences something to just get into again.  Just to sort of re-live the experience of seeing this for the first time and experience this idea for the first time in a new way.

bio

Mexican-American filmmaker Robert Rodriguez burst upon the independent scene with a miraculous $7000 (shooting cost) action film geared for the Mexican Spanish-language video market. Touted as the cheapest film ever released by a studio, "El Mariachi" (1993) was a galvanizing send-up of Mexican action films, American Westerns and tough anti-hero movies informed by such auteurs as Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah. It told the fast-moving story of a mariachi musician who arrives in a Mexican border town at the same time as a hit man. Violent complications ensue after they accidentally switch guitar cases. On the strength and economy of this first feature, Rodriguez snared representation by ICM and a two-year development deal with Columbia Pictures.

Born on June 20, 1968 in San Antonio, TX, Rodriguez began making Super 8 movies as a 13 year-old, using his large family—five sisters and four brothers—as a stock company. Though a born filmmaker, he was initially rejected by the film program at the University of Texas at Austin. Undaunted, Rodriguez continued with borrowed equipment and little money, making over 30 short films. He compiled a number of these for "Austin Stories,” a video anthology of three vignettes starring his younger siblings, which won Rodriguez several awards and admission to film school. There he made his first 16mm short, "Bedhead" (1991), a remarkable eight-minute-long calling card film about a little girl who uses her newfound telekinetic powers to enact revenge on her obnoxious older brother. The film racked up awards at 14 film festivals.

During his 1991 summer break from college, Rodriguez spent a month in a research hospital as a test subject for a new cholesterol drug. He was paid $3000 for his trouble and emerged with the script for "El Mariachi.” Rodriguez landed another $4000 from a friend before he began his 14-day shoot in a Mexican border town using mostly amateur actors. Columbia later picked up the several hundred thousand dollar tab for completing a final edit (on film rather than video), redubbing the sound and dialogue in Dolby stereo and blowing it up to 35mm. "El Mariachi" did only modest business at the box office—perhaps due to insufficient marketing to the Spanish-speaking action audience—but it provided a wake-up call to an often profligate industry.

Twitter
Facebook
RSS
Opening This Week
Posted 02/02/2012