ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO Q&A with ROBERT RODRIGUEZ

Filmmaker Robert Rodriguez became an overnight sensation in 1993 with the release of EL MARIACHI. A Mexican spaghetti western shot for the microscopic cost of $7,000 - the film went on to become an international box-office hit and, by default, made Rodriguez the patron saint of guerilla moviemaking. Ten years later, Rodriguez is now regarded as an established director in Hollywood - the man behind the lucrative SPY KIDS franchise. Following up on his 1995 film, DESPERADO, he completes his Mariachi trilogy this week with the release of ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO, starring Antonio Banderas, Johnny Depp and Salma Hayek. Can you explain your fascination with spaghetti westerns? I’ve always loved spaghetti westerns and the off-shoots of such like the ROAD WARRIOR movies. I think other people are inspired by those movies as well. That vision of a loner in a strange land. That ‘West’ that Sergio Leone came up with - this very made up sort of ‘West’. That’s very much what these MARIACHI movies are about. They’re set in a non-realistic Mexico. A mythical other place where you can go as an audience. The films also have a strong comic book element. When I had to come do this third one, I was trying to figure out who The Mariachi was. Well, he’s a guy with a guitar case full of guns. It’s not a realistic story. It’s almost like a comic book movie without the comic book. So I had to start thinking what is the comic that this is based on. Because it is that type of made up world where anything can happen. You’re dealing with very iconic, representative characters. So when I had to do the third one, I knew it had to be a little more epic, that it would have to have more characters, and that The Mariachi would just be one of them. I had to come up with equally iconic people to surround him with. It actually became kind of easy. I thought, “OK a man with no eyes, a man with no face and a man with no name.” I started doing these little drawings. One guy with blood coming down his face behind glasses. Another guy his face completely bandaged. Him with his guitar case full of guns. You start playing with these elements. It’s almost like constructing a comic book. Why did you make this third film? It was a mix of things. Originally I was going to make three very quickly in a row for Mexican video to practice making movies. That was the original MARIACHI plan. But then EL MARIACHI got picked up by Columbia Pictures and got released. So we did a sequel called DESPERADO. And that was as far as it was going to go. I didn’t think I would ever really do a third one. But on the set of DESPERADO, Quentin Tarantino told me I had to do a third one. It was my “Dollars Trilogy” He loved the Sergio Leone movies more than I did. And he said this was my chance. That no one had done this since Sergio Leone. I had to do part three and it had to be epic. It had to be the big one. ‘The Good The Bad and The Ugly’ one. “But you’ve got to call it ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO.” This was in 1994, when we were filming. I just thought, let’s just get through this first. That sounds interesting… maybe someday. A few years later the studio called. DESPERADO had picked up quite an audience on video and cable. They said people would really come out and see another one. Even the first one only did so much at the box office, but people have picked it up and discovered it since then. I said, “Well if we do, we’d have to make it bigger and call it ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO,” because now that’s in my head! I have to do it that way! And they said, “Sure, that’s the way we want to do it.” That’s kind of how it came about. It was a mix of me wanting to complete that trilogy that I’d always dreamed about at the larger scale Quentin Tarantino talked about. According to Antonio Banderas, you gave him three weeks notice before shooting but hadn’t written a script yet. SPY KIDS had just come out. I had seen these new digital cameras that George Lucas had. Even though I wanted to make the movie, I didn’t want to shoot it on film. It would be too cumbersome and take the feeling of the first two movies away because it would be such a bigger movie. But when I saw these digital cameras, I thought we can make anything with these cameras. It’ll feel like the first MARIACHI. We’ll be able to move very quickly. And even though it will be a more epic tale, it will be done in the right way. But three weeks? Yeah. He asked me for the script and I told him I hadn’t written it yet. I told the studio, “I’ve got a great new script for the Mexican movie - you want to make it?” They said “Sure, when are we getting the script?” I said, “I’ll send it next week”. Then I had to finish writing it. The actors strike was coming up, so we only had a certain amount of time to do it. Because then I would have to do these other SPY KIDS movies which we already had dates for. I said we have to make the movie right now. It’s the only time we could make it. What about the release date? It was supposed to come out in March 2003. Why the delay? I told them I could shoot it before the strike, but then I had to go shoot and put out these other SPY KIDS movies. I couldn’t get to edit it until I was done with those movies. I got to shoot it. Do another movie. Edit. Work on SPY KIDS 3, then score this. I kept jumping back and forth on each movie. It was cool to work like that because you got a lot of distance from it. Continued on page 2

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