Robert Rodriguez

Director Robert Rodriguez

Many Directors are noted for a particular genre of film. Alfred Hitchcock was the best at thrillers. Cecil B. DeMille did the over the top epics. Other directors are successful at a variety of film types. Billy Wilder did comedies and drama as well as any and better than most. Today there is Robert Rodriguez who is successful at adult action flicks as well as family entertainment.

In 1992, Robert raised $7,000 by being part of an experimental drug study. With the money he made the action flick El Mariachi. After being shown at The Sundance Film Festival it received distribution from Columbia pictures. In 1995, he remade it for $7,000,000. It was renamed Desperado and it starred Antonio Banderas.

Quentin Tarantino made a cameo appearance in Desperado and the two began a working relationship. Robert directed the vampire flick From Dusk Till Dawn, in 1996, which was written by Tarantino.

For the next 5 years Roberts would work very little as he was spending time with his family. He has 9 siblings and is married with 4 children. His one exception was in 1998 when he directed another horror film, The Faculty.

In 2001 Roberts took a new path in film making. No doubt inspired by his own family, he made the pro family film Spy Kids. Like it’s sequels Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams in 2002 and Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over (2003), Robert went against the Hollywood trend of single parent and orphaned children movies and actually glorified the traditional, mother father family unit. In 2003, Robert also released the sequel to Desperado, Once Upon a Time in Mexico.

In 2005 Robert’s again released an action flick, Sin City, within months of a family film, The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3-D. For Sin City Robert had to quit the Director’s Guild of America as he wanted to co-direct with comic creator Frank Miller. Long time friend Tarantino also helped on Sin City. For Shark Boy and Lava Girl, Robert collaborated with another artist, his son Racer. After seeing the lava scene in Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, Racer created Lava Girl and Shark Boy. He wrote the screenplay for the movie as well.

Robert Rodriguez writes, directs and is willing to take any criticism that may come his way. Or as he told FILMFORCE in an interview on July 25th, 2003, "My name's all over the movie. If you don't like it, you know who to blame."

He is currently working on Sin City 2. I look forward to seeing it and, considering he is one of only a few film makers who actually makes family films with traditional families in them, any family film he may make.