Father-of-five Robert Rodriguez is equally at home making kids-friendly fare (Shorts, Spy Kids) or more gonzo, R-rated films (Desperado, Grindhouse). He sees many similarities in each genre.

LOS ANGELES — Robert Rodriguez famously financed his first movie by donating his body to science.

So compared to being a human guinea pig for experimental drug studies, acting as his own editor, cinematographer and producer really doesn’t seem all that strenuous.

“The more jobs you do, the easier it is,” says the 41-year-old, whose latest film, the zany kids-friendly Shorts, opens Friday. “When you do a big movie, people are like, ‘I got to get more people.’ No, you have to get less people.”

That do-it-yourself work ethic makes Rodriguez an anomaly among directors. He shoots his films in his own backyard: Austin, Tex., on budgets that wouldn’t cover the catering bill on G.I. Joe, at a record pace. Conversely, he suffers a minimum of Hollywood interference from executives wowed by his thriftiness.

James Spader learned this first-hand when he showed up on set to film his role of a tyrannical business-tech tycoon in Shorts.

“It was a whirlwind,” Spader says. “I was in Texas for about a week. I was amazed. In a conventional film, it would’ve taken month and a half to shoot my part because it was throughout the script. But he shot me out in five or six days ... Robert has such tremendous confidence in how he puts film together. He has found a way, through technology and the people he works with and the facility he has, to shoot an incredible amount with very little.”

For Rodriguez, the logic is simple. By being his own editor he knows exactly what shots he needs, not a frame more, while directing. “If you’re the editor, you can watch a performance and say, ‘I got that, that’s what I’m going to use, let’s move on.’ You save a tremendous amount of time ... You can take 10 minutes to shoot something that you’d otherwise waste three days on. I’m not the best at those jobs, but it’s just more efficient.”

In Shorts, a suburban community is thrown into computer-generated chaos when neighbourhood kids discover a rainbow-coloured rock that grants wishes.

Although grown-ups in the cast include Spader, Leslie Mann, Jon Cryer and William H. Macy, the movie is very much about — and for — kids. And why not? While Rodriguez is still most closely identified with such gonzo R-rated fare as Desperado, From Dusk til Dawn, Sin City and Grindhouse, he’s also created a lucrative sideline for himself: Making family films such as the wildly-profitable Spy Kids franchise.

Interestingly, Rodriguez, who has five children, doesn’t see much difference between his kids-oriented movies and his blood-soaked action thrillers. “They’re not that far off,” he says. “It’s not like Shorts and Seven. It’s Shorts and Desperado, which has guitar cases that shoot missiles. They’re very much from the cartoonist’s hand because I used to be a cartoonist. The common theme is they’re all fantasies, they’re all made-up worlds, they all have a lot of humour, even From Dusk til Dawn. It’s a vampire movie but it’s a lot more comic than serious ...

“(Quentin) Tarantino got taken to the cleaners for not showing an ear being taken off in Reservoir Dogs because it’s such an intense, serious thing. But in Desperado, which came out around the same time, people are being mowed down left and right and people were like, ‘This is my kind of action movie!’ Because there’s a fun spirit to it. It’s more of a comic-book feel.

“Movies like Grindhouse and Sin City are still a lot of fun.”

kevin.williamson@sunmedia.ca

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