Robert Rodriguez talks ‘We Could Be Heroes,’ More ‘Alita’ and Pedro Pascal’s Appeal

For filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, teaming up with Netflix for the family action movie We can be heroes was a no-brainer.

“Netflix came to me,” he recalled. “They said that Spy children and my family movies were always doing well on their service, and they would like to have a live family movie from me because no one really does that. When you make them for theater, the parents might get the kids to see it once or twice, the kids want to go see it more, but they would see it non-stop on video. That didn’t help our box office, so it didn’t make much financial sense to give them a theater experience. For me, Netflix made a lot of sense because if my daughter wants to watch Glitter force, I don’t have to sit there and look at it. She can watch as often as she wants. She keeps clicking that button. That’s why I thought that’s where my family films should go. ”

However, Rodriguez has a creative confession to make.

“I came up with a story in the place, in the room,” he laughed. “I thought superheroes are great now, they’re like westerns or Star Wars yes, they are where you can put these great life lessons for kids and families in an interesting container. It doesn’t feel like you’re going to school, but you learn about the needs and state of the world as it is and the fears and challenges that children possess. The children have powers, some of them positive powers, but they do not know how to use them yet. Adults have set up the world, and we must come into this new generation to be saved but to be in partnership with their parents, superheroes from all over the world, to deal with each other and working together to make things happen. ”

“I was coming up with something like 16 super kids, but I realized that was too much. I had to draw and make some of my favorites just 11, which is still visible and visible in every scene. Even the Avengers there has never been a film that many of them are all together for a full film. They are always divided into groups. ”

Rodriguez has been hugely successful in the family film market with such beats with all three Spy children films totaling $ 147.9 million, $ 119.7 million, and $ 197 million at the box office worldwide, respectively. However, another of his family films is The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D, that’s a starting point for We could be heroes, even if that was not the original plan.

“People are upset because the Sharkboy and Lavagirl characters are inside We could be heroes and think of it as a sequence to The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl, but no, ”Rodriguez explained. “In the first film, these characters are from the world of dreams and not from the real world, but I actually made them just for this purpose to make the adult team legitimate. Now people might say, ‘Oh, there are two characters I’ve heard before. ‘Also, unfortunately, I was always fond of shark powers and lava powers and I wanted one of the kids to have at least one of those powers, if not both. ”

“Borrowing these characters from another studio, as Marvel sometimes borrows Spider-Man from Sony, I thought it would be a great way to pull it together. First, they weren’t in the script at all. It was a completely new franchise that wasn’t built from anything old, an original Netflix movie that could be a series of movies like Spy children. That’s how this was originally created. The Spy children don’t be like the Spy Kids until the last scene in the movie. That’s why you can continue with that series. This one, they won’t be a legit superhero team with costumes until the last scene in the movie, so he can keep going if it worked. If the audience comes to the film in the numbers that Netflix thinks it will, we want to do more. ”

In addition to seeding a potential new franchise for Rodriguez, it gave him another chance he couldn’t give up, reuniting Am MandalorianPedro Pascal ‘s.

“There’s something about him, his personality, he grew up in San Antonio where I was raised, and we got on really well right away,” the filmmaker said. “It’s like Harrison Ford. Everyone has quality for it. It’s very cool, down to earth, it has a lot of range, so you can do a lot with it, and it’s very impossible, and that expands on the screen. Any character he plays is going to give him a natural charisma and an established feeling, so even though Pedro has no children, you feel warmth for him as a father, and you feel so bad. and he is when he is a superhero. It reminds me of when I worked with George Clooney, who had played as a parent on ER, and then I made it into a cold-stone killer From Dusk to Dawn. He made people realize that he could play any part between them because when you can show that kind of range and still keep your charm, it makes you a true expert. ”

We could be heroes he also saw another reunion for Rodriquez. He was with the effects team behind another of the director’s films, Alita: Angel Angel.

“When I did that Spy children and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D, we were only dealing with two to maybe three children at a time, ”he said. “Here, dealing with so many children with unparalleled powers, who have to have stories that pay off, images that pay off, a visual effects company was good agam. When WETA, who did I Alita with, stepped in and said they would like to continue working with me even though this was a much smaller budget than we had Alita, I don’t know how much time has passed how good they are. They just did such a good job. I did not expect that level of effects. ”

“I usually don’t have that level of influence in my family films because my budgets are usually much lower. They delivered such a great film. In many ways, I was still burning it really dirty and dirty, just like I shot on a lot of my other movies. I did it with the same green screen I used Sky Kids and Sharkboy and Lavagirl; it’s just the artists behind the CGI being significantly updated. ”

With fans of Alita: Angel Angel still in the bay for a sequel of some sort, and with experience working with Netflix on We could be heroes and Disney + air Am Mandalorian, could streaming be the liberator of that franchise as a movie or a series?

“I think anything is possible. Bought Disney Fox, and they have Disney +, so that’s worth the conversation. I know other people would like to see another one, and I would love to do another. As far as where it would go or how it would be done, I think streaming has a lot of opportunities like following sequences. It’s already a pre-sale concept, there are already audiences who want to see it, and then deliver it to them in a way that’s easier for them to eat. So, it’s not a bad idea. ”

With more Am Mandalorian, a possible new franchise in We could be heroes, and the potential for a future for Alita: Angel Angel, Rodriguez is nearing the end of 2020 and heading into 2021, with a full list of opportunities. Not only that, but 2021 marks the 25th anniversary of another of his most popular, but largely family-friendly, films. From Dusk to Dawn.

“I finished color correction for the 4K version. It looks elegant. It was cool to see. I can’t wait for that to come out to celebrate the anniversary, ”Rodriguez confirmed. “It feels like it was a lifetime ago, but it doesn’t feel like it was many years ago if that makes sense. I felt like I’ve had three or four lives in this life, but 25 feels like a lot of years. It was a different life for me back then, for sure. I was starting out, the independent film scene was exploding, and From Dusk to Dawn an independently produced film. It was a very low budget. It was crazy how we fired that. ”

“It felt like you could do anything. Because of success Pulp Fiction, suddenly a studio no longer knew what listeners wanted. They were trying nothing, and it was very experimental. August was when Desperado came out, and my book Rebel Without A Crew, September was when my first son was born, then saw the end of the year Four Rooms comes out, and next month, January, From Dusk to Dawn came out. That’s the number of things that were falling at the same time for me over a period of four or five months. It was a great experience, for which I am still grateful. ”

We could be heroes landing on Netflix on Friday, December 25, 2020.