Planet Terror is a 2007 American action horror film written and directed by Robert Rodriguez, about a group of people attempting to survive an onslaught of zombie-like creatures as they feud with a military unit, including a go-go dancer searching for a way to use her "useless talents." The film, a tribute to the zombie film genre, stars Rose McGowan, Freddy Rodriguez, Josh Brolin, Marley Shelton, Naveen Andrews, Michael Biehn, Jeff Fahey, Stacy Ferguson and Bruce Willis. Planet Terror was released theatrically in North America as part of a double feature with Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof under the title Grindhouse in order to replicate the experience of viewing exploitation films in a "grindhouse" theater.

Planet Terror was released on April 6, 2007, and ticket sales were significantly below box office analysts' expectations, despite mostly positive reviews. In much of the rest of the world, each feature was released separately, with Planet Terror and Death Proof screened in extended versions.^[1][2] Two soundtracks were also released for the features and include music and audio snippets from the film. The film released separately in international theatrical markets, and on DVD in the United States and Canada on October 23, 2007.

Plot[link]

This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (November 2011)

The movie opens with the first trailer of Machete. In a rural town in Texas, go-go dancer 'Cherry Darling' (Rose McGowan) decides to quit her low-paying job and find another use for her numerous 'useless' talents. She runs into her mysterious ex-boyfriend 'El Wray' (Freddy Rodriguez) at the Bone Shack, a BBQ restaurant owned by JT Hague (Jeff Fahey) and his sheriff brother (Michael Biehn). Meanwhile, a group of military officials at a nearby US military base, led by the demented Lt. Muldoon (Bruce Willis), are making a business transaction with a chemical engineer named Abby (Naveen Andrews) for mass quantities of a deadly biochemical agent known as DC2 (codename "Project Terror"). When Muldoon learns that Abby has an extra supply on hand, he attempts to take Abby hostage, and Abby intentionally releases the gas into the air. The gas reaches the town and turns most of its residents into deformed bloodthirsty psychopaths, mockingly referred to as "sickos" by the surviving humans. The infected townspeople are treated by the sinister Dr. William Block (Josh Brolin) and his unhappy, unfaithful bisexual anesthesiologist wife Dakota (Marley Shelton) at a local hospital.

Random zombie attacks begin along the highway, leading El Wray, with Cherry as his passenger, to crash his truck. In the aftermath, several zombies tear off Cherry's right leg. Also falling victim, fatally, is Tammy (Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson), who was on her way to into town to reunite with her former lover Dakota. When Tammy's body arrives at the hospital, Dr. Block recognizes her and by comparing text messages on the cellular phones of Tammy and his wife, realizes Dakota was about to leave him. He then attacks Dakota with her own anesthetic syringe needles, stabbing her repeatedly in the hands, rendering them useless, before locking her in a closet to tend to other patients, including multiple arrivals showing signs of infection and Cherry, who despite her injury does not die.

El Wray is disarmed and detained by Sheriff Hague based on past encounters between the two men. As the patients transform into zombies, El Wray leaves the police station and arrives at the hospital, attaching a wooden table leg to Cherry's stump. As El Wray and Cherry fight their way out of the zombie-infested hospital, Dakota escapes to her car, but in struggling to open its door with her numbed hands, accidentally breaks her left wrist. She eventually manages to drive away. Meanwhile, Block becomes infected and others, including Cherry and El Wray, take refuge at the Bone Shack.

Dakota retrieves her son Tony and takes him to her father, Earl McGraw, a Texas Ranger. Tony, who was given a revolver by his mother, accidentally shoots himself in the face after being told not to point it at himself. Cherry and El Wray make love in JT's bedroom. Due to a missing reel, what happens immediately following this is unknown, but when the film returns, Sheriff Hague has been shot in the neck by one of his own officers, and zombies are massing outside the Bone Shack, which is set on fire. Dakota, Earl, and Tony's crazed babysitter twins arrive at the Bone Shack. With Sheriff Hague badly injured, the group decides to flee to the Mexican border, before being stopped by a large mob of zombies. Muldoon's men arrive, and kill the zombies before arresting the group. They learn from Abby that the soldiers are stealing Abby's supply of the gas because they are infected with it and the only treatment is by constant inhalation of the gas, which delays mutation. They also learn that a small percentage of population is immune to the gas, suggesting a possible treatment, which is why Muldoon quarantined the survivors.

As Cherry and Dakota are taken away by two soldiers (Quentin Tarantino credited as "Rapist #1" and Greg Kelly credited as "Rapist #2"), the others defeat the security guards. J.T. sustains a gunshot wound in the process, and the group searches for Muldoon. Discovered by El Wray and Abby, Muldoon explains that he killed Osama bin Laden before he and his men were infected with DC2 and were ordered to protect the area. El Wray offers a respectful recognition of Muldoon's military service before he and Abby shoot the mutating Muldoon.

Meanwhile, Cherry is forced to dance by Rapist #1 while being held at gunpoint. Cherry attacks by breaking off her wooden leg across his face and stabs the remaining jagged-point in his eye. Dakota, after realizing she has regained feeling in her hands, quick-draws her syringe launcher and stuns Rapist #2. El Wray and Abby arrive to rescue Cherry and Dakota, and El Wray replaces Cherry's broken wooden leg with a modified M4 Carbine with a M203 grenade launcher attachment. She promptly kills Rapist #1 and other zombies with it.

J.T., wounded and lying beside his dying brother, stays behind to detonate explosives (and himself) to eliminate the zombies still in the complex while the others flee. The survivors make plans to escape by stealing helicopters but must fight past the remaining zombies. Abby dies (and hope for a cure with him) when a ballistic projectile blows his head up. An infected Block then arrives and is killed by Earl, shortly before the survivors use the blade tips of their transport helicopter to decapitate all the remaining zombies. However, while saving Cherry from a zombie, El Wray is fatally wounded. In the epilogue, Cherry (now sporting a minigun prosthetic leg) leads the group and many more survivors to the Caribbean beach at Tulum, Mexico, where they start a peaceful new society amid a world-wide zombie infection. In the final moments of the film, it is revealed that Cherry Darling has given birth to El Wray's daughter (alluded to earlier during El Wray's final scene when he puts his hand on her stomach and restates his motto "I never miss").

In a post-credits scene Dakota's son Tony is sitting on the beach at the survivor's "base" playing with his turtle, scorpion, and tarantula.

Cast[link]

• Rose McGowan as Cherry Darling
• Freddy Rodriguez as El Wray
• Josh Brolin as Dr. William Block
• Marley Shelton as Dr. Dakota Block
• Jeff Fahey as J.T. Hague
• Michael Biehn as Sheriff Hague
• Rebel Rodriguez as Tony Block
• Bruce Willis as Lt. Muldoon
• Naveen Andrews as Abby
• Julio Oscar Mechoso as Romey
• Stacy Ferguson as Tammy Visan
• Nicky Katt as Joe
• Hung Nguyen as Dr. Crane
• Tom Savini as Deputy Tolo
• Carlos Gallardo as Deputy Carlos
• Skip Reissig as Skip
• Electra and Elise Avellan as the Crazy Babysitter Twins
• Quentin Tarantino as Rapist #1
• Greg Kelly as Rapist #2
• Michael Parks as Earl McGraw
• Jerili Romero as Ramona McGraw
• Felix Sabates as Dr. Felix

History and development[link]

Robert Rodriguez first came up with the idea for Planet Terror during the production of The Faculty."I remember telling Elijah Wood and Josh Hartnett, all these young actors, that zombie movies were dead and hadn't been around in a while, but that I thought they were going to come back in a big way because they’d been gone for so long," recalled Rodriguez, "I said, 'We've got to be there first.' I had [a script] I’d started writing. It was about 30 pages, and I said to them, 'There are characters for all of you to play.' We got all excited about it, and then I didn't know where to go with it. The introduction was about as far as I'd gotten, and then I got onto other movies. Sure enough, the zombie [movie] invasion happened and they all came back again, and I was like, 'Ah, I knew that I should've made my zombie film.'" The story was reapproached when the idea for Grindhouse was developed by Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino.^[3]

Planet Terror is preceded by a fake trailer for a film titled Machete, starring Danny Trejo and Cheech Marin, as it had during the original "double feature" presentation of Grindhouse. Rodriguez wrote Machete in 1993 as a full feature for Danny Trejo. "I had cast him in Desperado and I remember thinking, 'Wow, this guy should have his own series of Mexican exploitation movies like Charles Bronson or like Jean-Claude Van Damme.' So I wrote him this idea of a federale from Mexico who gets hired to do hatchet jobs in the U.S. I had heard sometimes FBI or DEA have a really tough job that they don't want to get their own agents killed on, they'll hire an agent from Mexico to come do the job for $25,000. I thought, 'That's Machete. He would come and do a really dangerous job for a lot of money to him but for everyone else over here it's peanuts.' But I never got around to making it."^[4] It was later announced that the trailer will be made as a feature film Machete.^[5][6] As for the reference to "Project Terror," Rodriguez paid homage to the late night horror show "Project Terror" which aired in Rodriguez's hometown of San Antonio, Texas on KENS-TV during the 1970s and early 1980s.

Production[link]

Directing[link]

According to actress Marley Shelton, "(Rodriguez and Tarantino) really co-directed, at least Planet Terror. Quentin was on set a lot. He had notes and adjustments to our performances and he changed lines every once in a while. Of course, he always deferred to Robert on Planet Terror and vice versa for Death Proof. So it's really both of their brainchild."^[7] Tarantino has stated, "I can't imagine doing Grindhouse with any other director in the way me and Robert did it because I just had complete faith and trust in him. So much so that we didn't actually see each other's movie completed until three weeks before the film opened. It was as if we worked in little vacuums and cut our movies down, and then put them together and watched it all play, and then made a couple of little changes after that, and pretty much that was it."^[8] Rodriguez acted as cinematographer on Planet Terror, as he had previously done on some of his earlier films.^[9]

Casting[link]

Many of the cast members had previously worked with Rodriguez. Before appearing in Grindhouse, Marley Shelton had auditioned for The Faculty, but Rodriguez chose not to cast her. She was eventually cast in the role of the Customer in the opening sequence of Sin City.^[7] Bruce Willis had appeared in Sin City.^[10] Tom Savini had previously acted in From Dusk Till Dawn, Michael Parks reprises the role of Earl McGraw, a role the actor first portrayed in From Dusk Till Dawn, and Quentin Tarantino himself appears in a small role, as he also does in Death Proof.

Special effects[link]

The film uses various unconventional techniques to make Planet Terror appear more like the films that were shown in grindhouse theaters in the 1970s. Throughout the feature and the Machete trailer, the film is made to look damaged; five of the six 25,000 frame reels were edited with real film damage, plug-ins, and stock footage.^[11]

Planet Terror makes heavy use of digital effects throughout the film, mostly for Cherry's fake leg. During post-production the effects teams digitally removed McGowan's right leg from the shots and replaced it with computer-generated props — first a table leg and then an assault rifle. During shooting for these scenes, McGowan wore a special cast which restricted her leg movement to give her the correct motion.^[11]

Editing[link]

During pre-production, Tarantino and Rodriguez came up with the idea of inserting a "missing reel" into the film. "(Quentin) was about to show an Italian crime movie with Oliver Reed," Rodriguez recalls, "and he was saying, 'Oh, it's got a missing reel in it. But it's really interesting because after the missing reel, you don't know if he slept with a girl or he didn't because she says he did and he says that he didn't. It leaves you guessing, and the movie still works with 20 minutes gone out of it.' I thought, 'Oh, my God, that's what we’ve got to do. We've got to have a missing reel!' I'm going to use it in a way where it actually says 'missing reel' for 10 seconds, and then when we come back, you're arriving in the third act. [...] The late second acts in movies are usually the most predictable and the most boring, that's where the good guy really turns out to be the bad guy, and the bad guy is really good, and the couple becomes friends. Suddenly, though, in the third act, all bets are off and it's a whole new story anyway."^[3]

Music[link]

The music for Planet Terror was composed by Robert Rodriguez. Inspiration for his score came from John Carpenter, whose music was often played on set.^[12] A cover version of The Dead Kennedys' "Too Drunk to Fuck" performed by Nouvelle Vague was also featured in the film. A soundtrack album was released on April 3, 2007, alongside the soundtrack for Death Proof.

Theatrical release[link]

Planet Terror was released in the United States and Canada alongside Death Proof as part of a double feature under the title Grindhouse. Both films were released separately in extended versions internationally, approximately two months apart.^[13] The Dutch poster artwork for Planet Terror claimed that the film would feature "coming attractions" from Quentin Tarantino.^[14] In the United Kingdom, Planet Terror was released in cinemas on November 9, 2007.^[15] In reaction to the possibility of a split in a foreign release, Tarantino stated, "Especially if they were dealing with non-English language countries, they don't really have this tradition ... not only do they not really know what a grind house is, they don't even have the double feature tradition. So you are kind of trying to teach us something else."^[16]

Alternative versions[link]

With the exception of Grindhouse and Single Theatrical versions of the movie, Rodriguez shot an alternative version where Tony Block did not accidentally shoot himself and survives throughout the film. The official theatrical version features a snippet of Tony on the beach after the end credits and snippets of scenes from this version appears on Rodriguez's 10 Minute Film School feature on Planet Terror DVD. Rodriguez mentioned that this version is especially made for his son Rebel, and has shown Rebel the film with the happy ending rather than the version where he is dead. He also mentioned that Tony's death makes his "horror film... more horrifying in his way".

Home release[link]

Planet Terror was released on DVD on October 16, 2007 in a two-disc special edition featuring the extended version of the film presented in a "flat" 1.78:1 screen ratio (the theatrical version in Grindhouse was matted to 2.35:1), audio commentary with Rodriguez, an audience reaction track, several behind the scenes featurettes about casting and special effects, and a "10 Minute Film School" segment,^[17][18] in which Rodriguez confirmed that a box set of the two films will be available soon, and that his 10 Minute Cooking School on Texas BBQ will appear on it.^[19]

The film was released on Blu-Ray on December 16, 2008. This version ports over the features from the DVD special edition, and also includes a "scratch-free" version of the movie, which doesn't feature the aforementioned intentional "damaged" look to the print. However, all American home video releases of the film are the extended version only and do not include the theatrical cut.

In mid-February 2009, Germany also released a steel box collector's edition for Planet Terror which comes with the famous BBQ sauce recipe and 2 scratch-and-sniff discs of the film which smell like the BBQ sauce. The pack also contains a limited edition Planet Terror blood pack.

The Grindhouse double feature was eventually released on Blu-ray Disc in October 2010.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Planet Terror at the Internet Movie Database
• Planet Terror at AllRovi
• Planet Terror at Rotten Tomatoes

Robert Rodriguez
Rodriguez at the 2007 Scream Awards, October 19, 2007
Born	Robert Anthony Rodriguez (1968-06-20) June 20, 1968 (age 44) San Antonio, Texas, United States
Occupation	film director, producer, screenwriter, editor, cinematographer and musician
Notable work(s)	El Mariachi, Desperado, Spy Kids, Sin City, Grindhouse, Machete
Influenced by	John Carpenter, James Cameron, Roger Corman, Russ Meyer, Wes Craven, Sergio Leone, John McTiernan, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Frank Miller
Spouse	Elizabeth Avellán (1990–2006)
Partner	Rose McGowan (2007–09)
Website
Troublemaker Studios

Robert Anthony Rodríguez (born June 20, 1968)^[1] is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, editor and musician. He shoots and produces many of his films in his native Texas and Mexico. He has directed such films as Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, The Faculty, Spy Kids, Sin City, Planet Terror, and Machete. He is a friend and frequent collaborator of filmmaker Quentin Tarantino.

Early life[link]

Rodríguez was born in San Antonio, Texas, the son of Mexican-American parents Rebecca (née Villegas), a nurse, and Cecilio G. Rodríguez, a salesman.^[2][3] He began his interest in film at age 11 when his father bought one of the first VCRs, which came with a camera.

While attending St. Anthony High School, he was commissioned to videotape the school's football games. According to his sister he was fired soon after for shooting them with a cinematic style, getting shots of parents' reactions and the ball traveling through the air instead of shooting the whole play. There he met Carlos Gallardo; they both shot films on video throughout high school and college. After graduating Rodriguez went to the College of Communication at the University of Texas where he also developed a love of cartooning. His grades were not high enough to get into the school's film program, so he invented a daily comic strip entitled Los Hooligans with many of the characters based on his siblings – in particular, one of his sisters, Maricarmen. The comic proved to be quite successful, running for three years in the student newspaper The Daily Texan while Rodríguez continued to make short films.^{[citation needed]}

Rodríguez grew up shooting action and horror short films on video, and editing on two VCRs. Finally, in the fall of 1990, his entry in a local film contest earned him a spot in the university's film program where he made the award-winning 16 mm short "Bedhead". The film chronicles the amusing misadventures of a young girl whose older brother sports an incredibly tangled mess of hair that she cannot tolerate. Even at this early stage, Rodríguez's trademark style began to emerge: quick cuts, intense zooms, and fast camera movements deployed with a sense of humor that offsets the action.^{[citation needed]}

Career[link]

Early career[link]

Rodriguez at the premiere of Grindhouse, Austin, Texas

This short film attracted enough attention to encourage him to seriously attempt a career as a filmmaker. He went on to shoot the action flick El Mariachi in Spanish. El Mariachi, which was shot for around $7,000 with money raised by his friend Carlos Gallardo and participating in medical research studies, won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 1993. The film, originally intended for the Spanish-language low-budget home-video market, was "cleaned up" with several hundred thousand dollars before being distributed by Columbia Pictures in the United States, still being promoted as "the movie made for $7,000". Rodríguez described his experiences making the film in his book Rebel Without a Crew. The book and film inspired legions of hopeful filmmakers to pick up cameras and make no-budget movies. The film and the book are widely considered important touchstones of the independent film movement of the 1990s.^{[citation needed]}

Mainstream success[link]

His next feature film was Desperado, a sequel to El Mariachi starring Antonio Banderas. The film introduced Salma Hayek to American audiences. Rodríguez went on to collaborate with Quentin Tarantino on the vampire thriller, From Dusk Till Dawn (he co-produced two sequels), and with Kevin Williamson on the horror film The Faculty.^{[citation needed]}

In 2001, Rodríguez enjoyed his first $100,000,000 (USD) Hollywood hit with Spy Kids, which went on to become a movie franchise, with the third film released in a crude form of 3D. A third "mariachi" film also appeared in late 2003, Once Upon a Time in Mexico which completed the Mariachi Trilogy. He operates a production company called Troublemaker Studios, formerly Los Hooligans Productions.^{[citation needed]}

Rodríguez co-directed Sin City (2005), an adaptation of the Frank Miller Sin City comic books; Quentin Tarantino guest-directed a scene. During production in 2004, Rodríguez insisted that Miller direct the film with him because he considered the visual style of Miller's comic art to be just as important as his own in the film. However, the Directors Guild of America would not allow it, citing that only "legitimate teams" could share the director's credit (e.g. the Wachowski Brothers). Rodríguez chose to resign from the DGA, stating, "It was easier for me to quietly resign before shooting because otherwise I'd be forced to make compromises I was unwilling to make or set a precedent that might hurt the guild later on." By resigning from the DGA, Rodríguez was forced to relinquish his director's seat on the film John Carter of Mars (in development) for Paramount Pictures. Rodríguez had already signed on and had been announced as director of that film, planning to begin filming soon after completing Sin City.^{[citation needed]}

Sin City was a critical hit in 2005 as well as a box office success, particularly for a hyperviolent comic book adaptation that did not have name recognition comparable to the X-Men or Spider-Man. He has stated that he is interested in eventually adapting all of Miller's Sin City comic books.^{[citation needed]}

Rodríguez released The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 2005, a superhero-kid movie intended for the same younger audiences as his Spy Kids series. Shark Boy & Lava Girl was based on a story conceived by Rodríguez's 7 year-old son, Racer, who was given credit for the screenplay. The film was not a major success, having grossed 39 million dollars at the box office.^{[citation needed]}

Rodriguez wrote and directed the film Planet Terror for the collaboration with Quentin Tarantino in their double feature Grindhouse (released in 2007). This film was a throwback to the Grindhouse exploitation cinema of the past.^{[citation needed]}

He also has a series of "Ten Minute Film School" segments on several of his DVD releases, showing aspiring filmmakers how to make good, profitable movies using inexpensive tactics. Starting with the Once Upon a Time in Mexico DVD, Rodríguez began creating a series called, "Ten Minute Cooking School" where he revealed his recipe for "Puerco Pibil" (based on Cochinita pibil, an old dish from Yucatán), the same food Johnny Depp's character, "Agent Sands" ate in the film. The popularity of this series led to the inclusion of another "Cooking School" on the two-disc version of the "Sin City" DVD where Rodríguez teaches the viewer how to make "Sin City Breakfast Tacos," a dish (made for his cast and crew during late-night shoots and editing sessions) utilizing his grandmother's tortilla recipe and different egg mixes for the filling. He had initially planned to release a third "Cooking School" with the October 16 DVD release of "Planet Terror" but then announced on the "Film School" segment of the DVD that he would put it on the upcoming Grindhouse Theatrical DVD set instead. The Cooking School, titled "Texas Barbecue...from the GRAVE!," is a dish based on the "secret barbecue recipe" of "JT Hague," Jeff Fahey's character in the film.^[4]

Rodríguez is a strong supporter of digital film making, having been introduced to the practice by director George Lucas, who personally invited Rodríguez to use the digital cameras at Lucas' headquarters.^[5]

[edit] Predators

On April 23, 2009, it was announced that Rodriguez would produce a new Predator sequel, entitled Predators. This film's script was based on early drafts he had written after seeing the original. Rodriguez's ideas included a planet-sized game preserve and various creatures used by the Predators to hunt a group of abducted yet skilled humans. Opening to mixed reviews, the film fared reasonably well at the box office – forming speculation that a sequel may be in the works.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Machete

Machete is a feature film directed by Rodriguez and released in September 2010. It is an expansion of a fake trailer Rodriguez directed for the 2007 film Grindhouse. It starred Danny Trejo as the title character. Trejo, Rodriquez' 2nd cousin, has worked with him in some of his other movies such as Desperado, From Dusk till Dawn, Once Upon a Time in Mexico and Spy Kids, where Trejo's character was also known as Machete. Although originally announced to be released direct-to-DVD as an extra on the Planet Terror DVD, the film was produced as a theatrical release.^[6]

According to Rodriguez, the origins of the film go back to Desperado. He says, "When I met Danny, I said, 'This guy should be like the Mexican Jean-Claude Van Damme or Charles Bronson, putting out a movie every year and his name should be Machete.' So I decided to do that way back when, never got around to it until finally now. So now, of course, I want to keep going and do a feature."^[7] In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Rodriguez said that he wrote the screenplay back in 1993 when he cast Trejo in Desperado. "So I wrote him this idea of a federale from Mexico who gets hired to do hatchet jobs in the U.S. I had heard sometimes FBI or DEA have a really tough job that they don't want to get their own agents killed on, they'll hire an agent from Mexico to come do the job for $25,000. I thought, "That's Machete. He would come and do a really dangerous job for a lot of money to him but for everyone else over here it's peanuts." But I never got around to making it."^[8]

Rodriguez hoped to film Machete at the same time as Sin City 2.^[9] Additionally, during Comic-Con International 2008, he took the time to speak about Machete, including such topics as: status, possible sequels after the release of Machete, and production priorities.^[10] It was also revealed that he has regularly pulled sequences from it for his other productions including Once Upon a Time in Mexico. Machete was released in theaters September 3, 2010 in the U.S.A.

On May 5, 2010, Robert Rodriguez responded to Arizona's controversial immigration law by releasing an "illegal" trailer on Ain't It Cool News.^[11] The fake trailer combined elements of the Machete trailer that appeared in Grindhouse with footage from the actual film,^[12] and implied that the film would be about Machete leading a revolt against anti-immigration politicians and border vigilantes.^[12] Several movie websites, including Internet Movie Database, reported that it was the official teaser for the film.^[12] However, Rodriguez later revealed the trailer to be a joke, explaining "it was Cinco de Mayo and I had too much tequila."^[12]

Unproduced projects and upcoming films[link]

Since 1998, he has owned the film rights to Mike Allred's off-beat comic Madman. The two have hinted at the project being close to beginning on several occasions without anything coming of it. However, other projects have been completed first (Allred was instrumental in connecting Rodríguez with Frank Miller, leading to the production of Sin City). In 2004, Allred, while promoting his comic book, The Golden Plates, announced that a screenplay by George Huang was near completion. In March 2006, it was announced that production on Sin City 2 would be postponed. Allred announced at the 2006 WonderCon that production would likely commence on Madman the Movie in 2006. Huang is actually friends with Rodriguez, who advised him to pursue filmmaking as a career when Rodriguez landed a deal with Columbia Pictures where Huang was an employee.^{[citation needed]}

In May 2007 it was announced that Rodríguez had signed on to direct a remake of Barbarella for a 2008 release.^[13] At the 2007 Comic-Con convention, actress Rosario Dawson announced that because of Barbarella, production of Sin City 2 would be put on hold. She also announced that she would be playing an amazon in the Barbarella film.^[14]

In May 2008 Rodriguez is said to be shopping around a prison drama television series called Woman in Chains!, with Rose McGowan being a possibility for a lead role.^[15]

As of June 2008, plans to remake the film Barbarella with Rose McGowan as the lead have been delayed; the actress and director are instead remaking the film Red Sonja.^[16]

As of May 2009, Rodriguez plans to produce a live-action remake of Fire and Ice, a 1983 film collaboration between painter Frank Frazetta and animator Ralph Bakshi. The deal was closed shortly after Frazetta's death.^[12]

In 2011, Rodriguez announced at Comic-Con that he had purchased the film rights to Heavy Metal and planned to develop a new animated film at the new Quick Draw Studios.^[17]

Personal life[link]

Rodriguez announced in April 2006 that he and his wife Elizabeth Avellán, with whom he had five children, separated after 16 years of marriage.^[18]

He reportedly had a "dalliance"^[19] with actress Rose McGowan during the shooting of Grindhouse.^[20] In October 2007, Elle Magazine revealed that Rodríguez cast McGowan as the title role in his remake of Barbarella.^[21] After some reports of them breaking up^[22] and being together again,^[23] they split up in October 2009.^[24]

In October 2010, he walked Alexa Vega down the aisle at her wedding to producer Sean Covel.^{[citation needed]}

The "one-man film crew" and "Mariachi-style"[link]

Rodríguez not only has the unusual credits of producing, directing and writing his films, he also frequently serves as editor, director of photography, camera operator, steadicam operator, composer, production designer, visual effects supervisor, and sound editor on his films. This has earned him the nickname of "the one-man film crew." He abbreviates his numerous roles in his film credits; Once Upon A Time In Mexico, for instance, is "shot, chopped, and scored by Robert Rodriguez", and Sin City is "shot and cut by Robert Rodriguez."

He calls his style of making movies "Mariachi-style" (in reference to his first feature film El Mariachi) in which (according to the back cover of his book Rebel Without a Crew) "Creativity, not money, is used to solve problems." Stu Maschwitz coined the term "Robert Rodriguez list", i.e. you make a list of things you have access to like cool cars, apartments, horses, samurai swords and so on, and then write the screenplay based on that list.^[25]

Filmography[link]

Collaborations[link]

Like most directors, Rodriguez has cast certain actors in more than one of his films.

The only actors that are not listed are ones who appear only in the Spy Kids franchise, and no other Rodriguez film. These actors include Alan Cumming, Mike Judge, Matt O'Leary, Emily Osment, Tony Shalhoub and Alexa Vega.

	El Mariachi	Roadracers	Desperado	Four Rooms	From Dusk till Dawn	The Faculty	Spy Kids	Spy Kids 2	Once Upon a Time in Mexico	Spy Kids 3	Sharkboy and Lavagirl	Sin City	Planet Terror	Shorts	Machete	Spy Kids 4	Sin City: A Dame to Kill For	Machete Kills
Jessica Alba												N			N	N	N
David Arquette		N									N
Electra and Elise Avellan													N		N
Antonio Banderas			N	N			N	N	N	N						N
Steve Buscemi			N					N		N
George Clooney					N		N			N
Rosario Dawson												N					N
Johnny Depp									N								N
Jeff Fahey													N		N
Carlos Gallardo1	N		N										N
Carla Gugino							N	N		N		N
Josh Hartnett						N						N
John Hawkes		N			N
Salma Hayek		N	N	N	N	N			N	N
Nicky Katt												N	N
Angela Lanza			N				N	N
Tito Larriva			N		N				N						N
Michael Madsen												N					N
Cheech Marin			N		N		N	N	N	N					N
Rose McGowan													N		N
Clive Owen												N					N
Robert Patrick						N	N
Michael Parks					N								N
Rebel Rodriguez											N		N	N
Mickey Rourke									N			N					N
Daryl Sabara							N	N		N					N	N
Tom Savini					N								N		N
Quentin Tarantino2			N	N	N								N
Danny Trejo			N		N		N	N	N	N					N	N		N
Patricia Vonne			N	N			N					N
Bruce Willis				N								N	N
Elijah Wood						N				N		N
	El Mariachi	Roadracers	Desperado	Four Rooms	From Dusk till Dawn	The Faculty	Spy Kids	Spy Kids 2	Once Upon a Time in Mexico	Spy Kids 3	Sharkboy and Lavagirl	Sin City	Planet Terror	Shorts	Machete	Spy Kids 4	Sin City: A Dame to Kill For	Machete Kills

¹ Gallardo also produced the Mariachi sequels.
² Tarantino has collaborated with Rodriguez in more ways than just as an actor.

See also[link]

	Book: Mexico Trilogy
Wikipedia books are collections of articles that can be downloaded or ordered in print.

• Chingon

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Robert Rodriguez

• Robert Rodriguez at the Internet Movie Database
• Cinescape – Directors Who Matter
• Robert Rodriguez – The Independents
• Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino discuss their double feature, "Grindhouse" with Charlie Rose on April 5, 2007

Michael Biehn
Michael Biehn, 2008
Born	Michael Connell Biehn (1956-07-31) July 31, 1956 (age 55) Anniston, Alabama, US
Other names	Mike, Mick(ey)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1977–present
Spouse	Jennifer Blanc

Michael Connell Biehn (born July 31, 1956) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in James Cameron's science fiction action films The Terminator as Kyle Reese, Aliens as Cpl. Dwayne Hicks, and The Abyss as Lt. Coffey. He has also acted in such films as Tombstone, The Rock, and Planet Terror. On television, Biehn appeared in the cast of the Emmy Award-winning 1980s television series Hill Street Blues and the short lived syndicated show Adventure Inc..

Personal life[link]

Biehn was born in Anniston, Alabama, the son of Marcia (née Connell) and Don Biehn, a lawyer,^[1][2] and grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska.^[3] He has three siblings: Brooks Ann, Jonathon and Steven. Biehn attended high school in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and was a member of the high school drama club. He then attended the drama program at the University of Arizona (where he joined Sigma Nu Fraternity) for two years before heading to Hollywood.

Career[link]

Michael Biehn got his start with a bit part in the film version of Grease in 1978. In 1981, he played a stalker in The Fan; at the time film was shot, he was in his mid-20s, and love interest, Bacall, more than 30 years his senior. After a few more films, Biehn played Kyle Reese, a sergeant sent back in time by John Connor to save his mother, Sarah Connor, in the 1984 film The Terminator. He starred in two other films directed by James Cameron: Aliens (as Corporal Hicks) and The Abyss (as Lieutenant Hiram Coffey), and had a small role in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (his briefly reprised role as Reese which was removed from the theatrical release but restored in the special editions and the director's cut).

A picture of Biehn as Kyle Reese in The Terminator was reproduced as the cover-art of the 1987 video game Metal Gear,^[4] which was meant to portray the game's protagonist, Solid Snake.

In an early draft of Alien 3 written by William Gibson, Biehn's character Hicks (who had survived the events of Aliens) was to become the main protagonist, replacing Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver).^[5] However, Walter Hill and David Giler penned the final script, which had Hicks killed off in the opening scene. Biehn, upon learning of his character's demise, demanded and received almost as much money for the use of his likeness in one scene as he had been paid for his role in Aliens.^[6]

In the 2000s, Biehn has taken acting roles ranging from big budget films such as The Art of War and Clockstoppers, to video games like Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, and independent movies, such as Havoc. He also starred in three TV series including the CBS drama The Magnificent Seven (1998–2000), the Tribune Entertainment syndicated TV series Adventure Inc.. (2002–2003), and the NBC TV series Hawaii (2004). All three shows were subsequently cancelled due to low ratings. Biehn was considered for a role in James Cameron's new science fiction epic film Avatar (2009), but Cameron felt his appearance in the film coupled with that of Sigourney Weaver's would remind people too much of Aliens.^[7]

Michael Biehn has developed a repertoire for performing combative military roles that have particularly involved the portrayal of a special forces soldier. This militaristic string of characters was first established with his role as Cadet John Alexander in The Lords of Discipline, followed shortly after by his performance as Sergeant Kyle Reese, a resistance movement soldier in the Terminator film series, and also Corporal Dwayne Hicks in Aliens. He has particularly played the role of a US Navy SEAL, which can be seen in his following film credits: Lieutenant Hiram Coffey in The Abyss, Lieutenant James Curran in Navy Seals, and the ill fated Commander Charles Anderson in The Rock.

Biehn, who said he was encouraged by Robert Rodriguez while on the set of Planet Terror to make his own film, has produced, written, directed and starred in The Victim, which was released in 2011.

Filmography[link]

References[link]