Early this morning during a press conference for the Robert Rodriguez produced “Predators” picture directed by Nimrod Antal — the footage of which incidentally looks nice and raw with primal fear being the big take away, read our report here — the Austin-based filmmaker was asked the inevitable, “what’s next” question from prying journos.
He echoed what his Troublemaker producer Elizabeth Avellan told Empire magazine a few months ago regarding a certain space-age family cartoon adaptation, though while Avellan suggested “The Jetsons” might be over, Rodriguez responded with an unequivocal, “I’m not doing ‘The Jetsons’.”
What is happening next is his reboot of his own “Spy Kids” franchise for The Weinstein Company with an all new, younger cast as the original kids have essentially all grown up now (Daryl Sabara has stayed in the Troublemaker family, he has a role in forthcoming “Machete”).
Rodriguez said he just turned the new script in and he’s excited for it. “That’s my most loyal audience, even more than the geek crowd, are the kids. Everyday kids and families come up to me and thank me for the ‘Spy Kids’ films and tell me that they’ve shown their new kids the original films.”
The reboot will be set 10 years later. “Let’s revitalize it with a new cast and some amazing kids and that maybe doesn’t sound as good as it sounds, but when you read the script its very funny. Its not like we’re going back to the well for a fourth time. It feels actually completely new. It’s the ‘Casino Royale’ to ‘For Your Eyes Only.’
The inevitable “Sin City 2” question was met with a cagey, but hopeful response. Will he revisit the series? “Quite possibly,” he said, “It’s still somewhere in the running.” – RP