Finally, a Film His Folks and Family Can See

Director Robert Rodriguez fondly recalls he and his nine siblings crowding around their mysterious Uncle Gregorio, peppering him with questions about his adventures. Gregorio was an undercover agent with the FBI--perhaps the most fascinating job an 8-year-old boy could imagine.

They would stand around him in awe, examining their uncle’s badge, covered in a thick leather case, made of a heavy gold-colored metal, with a photograph of a very young and suave-looking man staring deeply into the camera.

Uncle Gregorio would never tell the kids where or what exactly he was doing. It was their job to spin tales and entertain one another with the fantastic travels of Uncle Gregorio, who to them was an international man of mystery--a Latin James Bond.

When Rodriguez became a director, he wanted one of his first movies to be based on these childhood fantasies about his uncle’s work. But it would take at least a decade before his dream would come true.

Today, “Spy Kids,” Rodriguez’s action-adventure film about spy work as seen through the eyes of children, opens nationwide. The $36-million, digitally shot feature is the first children’s picture for Rodriguez, a director known better for his bloody, violent adventure films such as “From Dusk Till Dawn” and “El Mariachi.” It took 10 years of experience, Rodriguez says, to be able to master the use of special effects and digital technology while also keeping the budget to a minimum. Now an established filmmaker, he has imbued the film with a Rodriguez style, full of fast-action cuts, close-ups and panoramic takes--sans the blood and guts.

“I wanted this movie to feel like a little kid wrote it and directed it,” said Rodriguez who has three children of his own. “I wanted to keep it that innocent and visual, very imaginative and whimsical.”

It is also one of the few children’s film the distributor, Dimension Films, a specialty label of Miramax Films, has produced. Dimension, better known for horror movies such as “Scream” and “Mimic,” is hoping “Spy Kids” will show them the money at the box office. Bob Weinstein, head of production for Dimension, said he liked “Spy Kids” so much that he has already green-lighted “Spy Kids II.”

“As a kid growing up, ‘Goldfinger’ was one of my favorites,” said Weinstein, at the first public screening of the film in Las Vegas, referring to the James Bond classic. “I always dreamed I could be a cool secret agent and do all the things [Bond] did.”

Rodriguez too had fantasies of James Bond--but in his mind, he was always Latin.

“Spy Kids,” which is rated PG, tells the story of Gregorio and Ingrid Cortez (Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino), former spy nemeses now married, who decide to go on one last mission. But on that assignment, they get kidnapped. So, it’s up to their two children (played by first-timers Alex Vega and Daryl Sabara) to rescue them and save the world from techno-wizard Fegan Floop (Alan Cumming) and his evil sidekick, Minion (Tony Shalhoub).

Gadgets James Bond Jr. Would Love to Have

Desperate to find their parents, the children embark on an adventure where they learn stylized karate moves and how to pilot submarines shaped like guppies, fly through the air with powered knapsacks and use spy gadgetry such as a wristwatch that turns into a satellite dish.

Rodriguez began writing the script four years ago, using some of his childhood memories as the foundation. He approached Banderas about “Spy Kids” while the two were filming “Four Rooms” in 1995. (Banderas’ character is named after Rodriguez’s uncle.) The guards at the evil Minion’s palace are shaped like strong, menacing thumbs, an idea that came from a drawing Rodriguez made when he was 11. In his childhood drawings, the “thumb guys” played soccer with an eyeball.

The film is brightly colored, saturated with reds, oranges and yellows commonly found in Latin homes. Having grown up in San Antonio, part of a fifth-generation Mexican American family, Rodriguez wanted the movie to be seamlessly bicultural, where the audience would not even notice how Latin it really is.

“I wanted to include the culture without making it a Latin film,” Rodriguez said. “It’s supposed to be more universal. For those of us who are Latin, it’s nice to go to the movies and say, ‘Hey, there are some positive Latin characters.’ I don’t think Latins want to feel like they are a niche audience--they are a part of [American] culture and the world.”

It has been three years since Rodriguez made his last film, “The Faculty,” a horror/science fiction story. Although he has made a name for himself with action thrillers, Rodriguez says his heart is really in family movies.

“In children’s movies you don’t have to show anybody hitting anybody,” Rodriguez said. “You have to be smarter than that. And it’s fun to think of ways of having action and adventure in movie without the violence. It is more challenging.”

His first film in 1991, “Bedhead,” is actually a children’s film, but it was never released theatrically. A year later he made headlines with his $7,000 production (he raised the money by volunteering himself for medical research experiments), “El Mariachi.” The crudely made action film became a critical hit with a cult following, landing him a production deal at Columbia. He says breaking into Hollywood with action films was easier than with children’s movies.

Columbia then wanted him to work on a sequel to “El Mariachi,” which led to “Desperado,” another adult action picture. That was followed by another R-rated feature, “Four Rooms,” which flopped. But perhaps his most violent film was the vampire action movie “From Dusk Till Dawn.”

Slipping Past the Censors

Rodriguez said he intentionally amped up the violence in that film because he figured the Motion Picture Assn. of America would want some of the violence toned down for it to get an R rating. To his surprise, they let a lot of the gore pass.

“I put more violence in there so when they would cut it, they wouldn’t cut it back that much,” Rodriguez said. “Now I look at it and say this is a lot more violent than I wanted it to be.”

The man who staged some of the most gruesome, gory scenes of the late 1990s is actually quite concerned about violence and film. He edits objectionable content from the movies his children see. And he is horrified when parents tell him their young children have watched his past movies.

“Parents would tell me that their kids really loved ‘Desperado’ and I thought, ‘They are not supposed to be watching that!’ ” he said. “You can’t be the parent for them. You say it’s not my responsibility but in a way you do feel responsible. It was never your intention to have kids see it.”

He is an unabashed family man.

Only 32, he has been married for 11 years to Elizabeth Avellan, his college sweetheart and now producer of his movies. He lives and works out of his home in Austin, Texas, preferring the calm, college-campus-style atmosphere of the state capital to the frenzy of Los Angeles. His reputation as an action-thriller director is ironic, considering he is a homebody, more at ease spending time with his three children and wife than attending Hollywood functions.

His voice practically quivers with enthusiasm when he is talking about his children, 5-year-old Valentin, known as Rocket; 3-year-old Maximiliano, known as Racer; and 2-year-old Antonio, known as Rebel. Rocket joined his father on the set of “Spy Kids” during filming.

Perhaps what Rodriguez relishes most are Fridays, when the family has pizza night, camps out in the living room and watches movies.

“Spy Kids,” he says, is the first movie he can feel proud of showing to his parents and children.

“Finally, my parents can see and be proud of my movie,” he said, laughing. “They would see my films and say, ‘My God! This isn’t how you grew up!’ Usually you are not at all like the movies you make. This is the one that really represents the person who I am.”