RobertRodriguez Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Peter Segal Replaces Rodriguez on 'The Jetsons'?
Filed under: RumorMonger », Fandom »
By: John GholsonThis movie should've happened fifteen years ago, and it should've starred Tim Allen. It didn't, so here we are in 2009 talking about whether or not a live-action movie based on Hanna-Barbera's animated "futuristic" sitcom The Jetsons will ever see the light of day.
Pajiba says yes, and they say that Peter Segal (Get Smart, Tommy Boy) is the director currently circling the long-dormant project. Director Robert Rodriguez (Shorts) was once enthusiastic about taking a crack at the material, but Warner Brothers wants to move on the project soon and Rodriguez keeps a full plate. Unlike Pajiba, though, I don't see this potential shift in directors as a huge step down.
Read the rest over at SciFi Squad
Adrien Brody and Topher Grace Will Hunt 'Predators'
Filed under: Action », Classics », Horror », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », Thrillers », Casting », 20th Century Fox », Newsstand », Remakes and Sequels »
When you think of a man of brawn who can outwit the ruthless Predator, you think of two men: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Adrien Brody. What, you didn't picture that last one? Well, Robert Rodriguez and Nimrod Antal did. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Brody and Topher Grace are both set to join Alice Braga, Mahershalalhashbaz Ali, Walt Goggins, Danny Trejo and Oleg Taktarov in Predators, a franchise reboot of sorts that will follow several of earth's "killers" who are kidnapped and dropped on the Predator's home planet for a game of hide, seek and be brutally murdered.All joking aside, Brody and Grace's unassuming demeanors will be a big part of their characters. Brody will play a soldier forced to become a leader (presumably because the Predator killed the old one), but is fit for the job because he's "a hunter of men." Grace will play a nerdy, accountant type whose very ordinariness hides the fact that he's a serial killer.
The rest of the cast is a little better suited for the lethal jungle. Braga will play a tough female killer, while Ali is a man who is unafraid to die. Goggins is a loose cannon (there's always one!) and Takatarov will be a former Russian operative. But baddest of them all is Trejo's Cuchillo, "a hardened warrior with two uzis strapped to his back." I don't know about you, but my leader would be the one with the twin uzis. That's just me though.
Shooting begins next month in Hawaii, and then moves to Austin. Variety notes that Brody lobbied very hard for the role, and has already signed on for future installments. So, I guess we know which operative makes it out of the jungle ...
Review: Shorts
Filed under: Action », Comedy », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », New Releases », Warner Brothers », Theatrical Reviews », Family Films »
I'm spoiled. As a kid, I woke up with Beanie and Cecil and Rocky and Bullwinkle, gobbled down Looney Tunes, Merry Melodies, Speed Racer and Gigantor after school, and passed the early evening hours with The Flintstones and The Jetsons. Even as an uneducated child, I knew the ones with replay value and the ones that quickly grew tiresome. As an adult, I know the ones that still hold up and the ones that make me embarrassed to admit I ever watched them.
That brings me in a roundabout way to Robert Rodriguez' new, live-action film Shorts. Funny, inventive, and very, very clever in micro-bursts of six to eight seconds, Shorts becomes tiresome over the length of its 89-minute running time. I couldn't shake the feeling that it would have been better-suited as a weekly television show, chopped up into brief segments with plenty of commercial breaks in between. Shorts could just as easily have been called "Six Short Sketches in Search of a Synopsis," but then the title would be longer than its attention span.
Aimed squarely at kids, Shorts may, perhaps, please the modern sensibility of today's sub-teens, but I suspect the well has run dry for Rodriguez and family films. The Spy Kids franchise devolved in entertainment value from the first installment to the third, and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl was an unfortunate mess. Rodriguez has built a cottage industry based on a scattershot approach to filmmaking. He's always been a "shoot [film] first, ask [narrative] questions later" kind of director / writer / photographer / editor / composer / visual effects artist. That doesn't serve him well with Shorts.
Scenes We Love: From Dusk Till Dawn
Filed under: Quentin Tarantino », George Clooney », Scenes We Love »
It seems like the perfect time to talk about From Dusk Till Dawn -- and naturally, fire up the DVD player and watch it again. Quentin Tarantino wrote the screenplay and acted in the horror film, and his movie Inglourious Basterds opens next weekend. On the same day, the family film Shorts, the latest by From Dusk Till Dawn director Robert Rodriguez, will also hit theaters. And let's not forget that Rodriguez is currently filming Machete, with a cast that includes some actors from his 1996 film: Danny Trejo and Cheech Marin.
Cheech Marin is the focus of one of the most vivid scenes in From Dusk Till Dawn, which I love in a somewhat guilty sort of way. If you've seen the film, you're probably shaking your head at your computer screen and thinking, "She's not. She is totally not going to tell us she loves That Scene. Aw, no." Women are pondering whether I'm betraying our sex, men may be smirking a bit. My husband still can't believe I picked this scene to discuss. Those of you who haven't seen the film just wish I'd get on with it. If you don't want to see any slang sex words on your computer, you may not want to read past the jump.
Warning: The scene featured after the jump is R-rated and NSFW
James Spader Remembers John Hughes
Filed under: Comedy », Drama », Romance », Interviews »
James Spader returns to the villain roles that made him famous in Shorts, the new family film by writer-director Robert Rodriguez. But during the film's recent press day, the star of such '80s classics as Pretty in Pink and Less Than Zero took a moment to reflect on his experiences working with John Hughes, who passed away last week at the age of 59.
"I actually was very lucky on [Pretty in Pink]," Spader said during a roundtable interview on Saturday. "John [Hughes] wrote and produced that film; Howard Deutch directed it, and it was just such fun. That was a picture where John was on the set every day, I was living in New York at the time and I was out here on my own, and John and I got along really well."
"He'd invite me over to the house a lot on weekends to have lunch with his family," he continued. "He had a big family, and they would all be jumping around in the pool and stuff. He had a very odd writing affect – he wrote at night, long after the rest of the family had gone to bed – and I've always been a night person."
Obviously not everyone's memories of Hughes and his films are as intimate, but what do you remember most about the iconic writer-director? A scene? A movie? Let us know!
Discuss: Wackiest Ensemble Casts
Filed under: Casting »
It seems like people all over the Web are exclaiming today about the final casting for Machete, Robert Rodriguez's feature-length expansion of the fake trailer he made for Grindhouse in 2007. Imagine all these people together in one room: Danny Trejo, Robert De Niro, Steven Seagal, Jessica Alba, Don Johnson, Lindsay Lohan and Cheech Marin, among others. It sounds a little crazy, doesn't it? Wouldn't you love to be invited to a dinner party with them all? Since they're shooting Machete here in Austin, I can daydream about walking into a local restaurant and finding that cast tucked away in a private dining room ... hmm ...
But the big-name Machete casting actually worries me a bit in that "too good to be true" way. Movies with wacky, high-profile ensemble casts often raise my expectations very high, and then it turns out that the filmmakers may have spent too much time casting and not enough on the script. Next thing I know, I'm watching a great group of talent that should be fabulous, but instead make me feel bored or annoyed, and ultimately disappointed.
Cinematical's Summertime Director's Interview Series
Filed under: Fandom », Interviews », Summer Movies »
At the beginning of the summer we told you how this year our theme was Summer Appreciation, hence the Our Favorite Summers series and our very cool director's series. Our intention was to speak to as many directors with films coming out during the summer and not only chat about their particular movie, but the summer movie season in general. What were some of their favorite summer moviegoing experiences, or favorite summer movies, etc ...
Though we're still not done shoveling out all those interviews, we wanted to drop in with a little recap of the ones we've already conducted in case you're looking for something to browse through this weekend as we segue into the last month of the summer, August. Links to all our special summertime director interviews below, along with some choice quotes.
McG, Terminator Salvation
"Raiders. That was a time when I would characterize the big movies as the best movies, and so rarely is that the case. That was the case last summer with Iron Man and The Dark Knight, which were the biggest movies of the year and arguably the best movies of the year. So I would welcome that sort of summer moviemaking coming back, and I'm a child of [Star Wars] Episodes IV, V and VI, and that's just where my head is. Those are the seminal moments of my life."
Pete Docter, Up
"I kind of look at it as everybody at the studio has a really unique set of skills. Like, if I was building a house, for example, I could probably do it myself to some degree, or at least teach myself, but why not get the greatest craftsmanship that I possibly could for every part of that house?"
Sam Raimi, Drag Me to Hell
"The point to make it in the first place is to make a horror story – to entertain, thrill and scare the bejeezus out of the audience, if I can, and make them jump and shout, and if I can, make them have a good laugh too."
Much more after the jump
SDCC Interview: Robert Rodriguez
Filed under: Fandom », Interviews », Comic/Superhero/Geek », ComicCon »
We spoke to Robert Rodriguez on video at Comic-Con, and then we sat down with him for a full interview to get an update on all of his projects, and to find out about his upcoming movie Shorts. He's definitely a man wearing a lot of hats, since he writes, directs, edits, scores, does special effects, and produces. In fact, just about the only thing he doesn't do in these films is act. He brought us up to date on Red Sonja, Sin City 2 and Predators, and spoke about being back at Comic-Con.
Read on after the break for his full interview, including more about Shorts and how his kids help inspire his movies. It's just after the jump, and is (mostly) free of information about who he's dating.
Lindsay Lohan to Face Off Against 'Machete'?
Filed under: Action », Comedy », Horror », Casting », RumorMonger », Fandom »
The time is almost upon us. At first it seemed like a wonderful and impossible rumor. Then it seemed like it could possibly happen. Now, Machete is about a week away from production, and the cast is getting finalized. MTV chatted with Robert Rodriguez at Comic-Con, and the director confirmed some cast, teased about others, and is remaining really tight-lipped until all deals are signed.Danny Trejo is, of course, holding the machetes and Michelle Rodriguez is definitely on-board. As for De Niro? Hill? The director isn't saying, but he did admit that they've sent the script to lots of big names, one of whom could be Ms. Lindsay Lohan. Rodriguez refused to confirm or deny when he name came up, but did say: "Lindsay's cool. There's actually cool part in the movie for her if she takes it."
More right here...
SDCC: Interviews with Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Robert Rodriguez, Denzel Washington and More!
Filed under: Fandom », Movie Marketing », Interviews », Comic/Superhero/Geek », ComicCon », Trailers and Clips »
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Our own Todd Gilchrist already gave you some deets on the Warner Bros. panel, where the studio showed off a whopping six upcoming films, including Sherlock Holmes, Jonah Hex, Nightmare on Elm Street, Where the Wild Things Are, The Box and The Book of Eli. Right before the panel, however, Cinematical squeezed itself into the TV press line in an attempt to snag the folks in and behind these movies so that we could ask them a question or two. Cinematical's Elisabeth Rappe joins our trusty Comic Con cameraman Chris Glenn as both attack the line with a vengeance.
After the jump:
-- Josh Brolin talks about a potential Jonah Hex sequel
-- Jackie Earle Haley talks about experiencing another Comic Con
-- Mila Kunis and Gary Oldman argue over their favorite super powers
-- Robert Rodriguez talks about all the different films he's working on
-- Denzel Washington laughs off any idea that he's got a little geek stuck inside him
Note: Cinematical shared the Brolin and Washington interviews with Frosty from Collider.
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