Robert Rodriguez is a director who doesn’t easily fit into a specific category or box. He shot family films like Spy childrennoir crime thrillers like Sin cityand blockbuster action movies like Alita: Battle Angel. His latest film, a sci-fi thriller Hypnoticit just had its international premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and is now available on demand in the US
In the film, Ben Affleck plays a detective who suffers from grief and trauma over his missing daughter. However, a mysterious clue left in a bank robbery sends him on a cat-and-mouse chase with a man he believes has his daughter. But with mind control and false realities in play, nothing Hypnotic is as it seems. Halfway through the film, a major twist completely changes everything the audience thinks they know and changes the entire trajectory of the story.
Rodriguez was able to take a break from his busy Cannes schedule to discuss his new film and reflect on his 1998 cult hit. Collegewhich celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.
Double R Productions / Ketchup Entertainment
Digital trends: I’ve heard it Hypnotic is your passion project and that you wanted to make this film for a long time. Where did the idea come from and how did it all come together?
Robert Rodriguez: A real key influence came from one of my earliest memories of theaters. My mom took me to see a double Hitchcock movie Rebecca and Enchanted. Salvador Dali’s dream sequence [in Spellbound] really stuck with me. I have long been a fan of Hitchcock films. I even did a Hitchcock type thriller earlier in my career called El Mariachi which was very inspired by the kind of movies he used to do where a guy is usually misidentified as a villain and then chased.
When I was making Spy children 2Hitchcock’s Dizziness it has just been restored and given a limited edition. I watched it and said, “Wow, another one of these Hitchcock movies that has twists and turns, a strong leading man, and a one-word title that’s very mysterious.” That’s when I knew I wanted to come up with something like that. I wondered what one-word title he would have used if he had gone on to make 10 more films. You know, he had Psycho, Frenzy, Enchanted, Dizziness, notorious…and then it just dawned on me – Hypnotic.
I thought that was cool, but then I had to ask what it meant. So I thought of the guy who couldn’t be caught. Someone you’re so close to catching, but then all of a sudden the cops shoot each other, you settle down, and he walks off with your bank account. So some of the key scenes in the movie, like the bank robbery, were actually from the first writing I did, and then I put it aside, thinking “One day I’ll finish this.” Before I knew it, 15 years had passed before I picked it up again and created a new ending.
But then I got it Alita and worked on that project. Later, when we were supposed to finally start filming Hypnotic, COVID hit and we had to stop. Production was actually shut down two more times after we started in 2021. It’s been a long road.
Double R Productions
Hypnotic it has about three major twists, the first of which occurs about halfway through the film. Dealing with hypnotists and mind control offered a lot of room to play with, but I have to ask, as a director, how do you construct a story and keep everything in line when you have so many twists and turns?
For me, that’s what made the movie so much fun. The hypnotic world is more fun and has so many layers. You can make the first part of the movie look like Ridley Scott (Blade Runner) or Michael Mann (Warmth) film, with enhanced music, enhanced colors and enhanced grain. But then the real world is more antiseptic and cleaner, and then when you go back to the hypnotic world, you’re back in a cool movie again. Instead of red jackets, wear leather jackets. It gave us a lot to play with and allowed the actors to play different characters, which they loved.
One thing I noticed Hypnotic is something I have noticed in many of your other films, e.g Planet Terror and Faculty –– cannot be easily placed in one genre. Hypnotic it’s part action and part thriller, with some sci-fi aspects thrown in. You do a great job of making movies that blend a lot of genres, but I also know that audiences and critics tend to want things that fit easily into defined categories. Do you ever feel anxious about doing your own thing, knowing it won’t fit into the standardized boxes Hollywood wants?
Not really, not when you’re looking at the long term. I always like mixed genre movies. They always say if you mix genres, your film won’t be that successful. That’s the common opinion and it’s not wrong, they have the data to show you that. But I’m going for it anyway. When me and Quentin [Tarantino] did From dusk to dawn, we knew that mixing genres would limit the audience. But 30 years later, people still come up to me and talk about it.
Sometimes it’s hard to get people to go to the theater to see a mixed genre movie, but in the long run people come and love it, so you just have to make a choice. Personally, I love mixed genre films and I’ve found that over time, people respond a lot to them. It’s like I’ve never heard it talked about so enthusiastically College until the last few years. I hear so much about that movie now.
Double R Productions
Ok, since we’re on the subject College, I have to tell you that it is my favorite movie of all time. I have written numerous articles about it, and the poster hangs on my wall. This year also marks the 25th anniversary of the film after its premiere in 1998, so I’d like to ask a few questions about it. First, the cast. How did you get such a fantastic ensemble cast, from teenage heartthrobs to horror legends, Broadway stars and even Jon Stewart?
Honestly, it was little by little. First of all, I knew I wanted Elijah Wood. I didn’t even want to do the movie unless we got Elijah. I actually flew out to meet him on another set to convince him to do the film. I knew the lead in the movie had to be really good, and Elijah was fantastic, so I knew I needed it.
For Josh Hartnett, he came to the audition and was throwing his papers away, mixed up the pages, didn’t read the scene properly, and then he just walked out and I was like… that’s the guy. The studio called me and said: “You are hiring that guy?!?” I told them that I had been watching people come in for weeks trying to act like a cool guy, but Hartnett was the first guy to come in who actually is cool guy. That guy is so fucking cool I just had to turn the camera on him.
Then for Stokely, Clea DuVall comes in sunglasses. He films the entire scene wearing sunglasses, barely even looking up. She comes out and I say, “It’s Stokely!” They said, “That girl? You can’t even see her face!” And I was like, “I know, that’s the character!” Later I told her about the audition, and she said, “Oh shit! I was so nervous I must have forgotten to take my sunglasses off!” I thought it was a character choice, but she didn’t even mean to do it on purpose. It just kind of magically came together.
Dimension Films
Jon Stewart was doing a late night talk show at the time, but he didn’t daily show, he had a performance before that. I met him for the first time because I was a guest on his show for Desperate. When I was at the casting CollegeI just remembered him and thought, that guy is so charming and so funny, I’m going to get him to be one of the teachers.
And for Salma Hayek, I’ve already worked with her a lot. And she says that now so many people bring her College things to sign. She recently told me that the movie is being mentioned to her a lot now and that she has people asking her to sign things for her character as the nurse in College.
As for Bebe Neuwirth, I was a huge fan of hers. I saw her inside Chicago and she was just great. He has such a wonderful voice, it’s very mysterious. I knew she would give the principal a big advantage.
And oh my god, Piper Laurie, she scared me to death. We were shooting the scene where she cuts Bebe Neuwirth with the scissors and Laurie seemed like a quiet woman so I tried to show her what I wanted and told her to cut down towards the camera. And then she takes the scissors from me and starts doing the moves you see in the movie with that blank look. It was so creepy and then I was like… wait she came in Carrie, so of course he knows what he’s doing! The look she gave was so spooky.
Dimension Films
How were you chosen to direct? College?
Well, I knew I wanted to do it Spy childrenbut College is something the studio really wanted me to do. They had a script by Kevin Williamson [referring to The Faculty‘s screenplay] and Scream was already a huge hit, and they said, “Look, you’ve got to do it now because these teen movies could be dead in a year! So you have to do this right now, and you’re not ready to do it Spy children anyway.” Which was true, I still had some work to do on the script and things I needed to do Children spies, so i got it College it would be good for me to work where I could find a team and a space in Austin, Texas, and then I could just jump into Spy children after.
Making of College it was just an explosion. There was so much young energy and the actors were delighted with it. I will say, though, I was worried it wouldn’t be good. I wanted them to use a different title because our target audience didn’t want to see a movie about teachers. So I fought for a better title.
Dimension Films
Did you have any ideas for the title in your head?
I did. It was Estrangedbut my favorite idea was The others. And the studio said, “No, no, let’s just go with it College.” Then two years later that same studio released a film under the title The others with Nicole Kidman. But I came up with that name for College. I mean, it’s possible that his script already had that title, but yeah, I wanted that title for my movie. I think College he didn’t perform as much as he could because of the title.
I remember growing up there was a movie with Nick Nolte called The teachers. And I remember being like… what kid wants to watch a movie about teachers? That’s what worried me about my film, that we wouldn’t attract a younger audience because of the title. They even had to shoot extra footage of the faculty doing things like closing the windows and locking the trailer doors, which only reinforced the idea that the teachers were the villains. So yeah, I don’t think they knew how to sell it, which is why I think so many people discovered it later and are now coming out and saying, “Hey, this movie is pretty good!”
Hypnotic is available digitally on demand and College current at Max.
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Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn