Robert Rodriguez, cinema's on-the-cheap pioneer, directs filming of Spy Kids 4, secretly shot in Aroma-Scope.
Image courtesy Dimension Films

For two decades (and counting), hyperproductive director Robert Rodriguez has followed in the footsteps of his franchise-making idols George Lucas and James Cameron to become one of Hollywood’s outsider technological pioneers.

“I figured, ‘I’m following Obi-Wan! He knows what time it is!’” the easygoing auteur told Wired.com by phone from his “space station” home studio in Austin, Texas. “He doesn’t wait 10 years to adopt a new technology like everyone else.”

Rodriguez’s latest clever renovation of the industry arrives Friday in the form of Spy Kids: All the Time in the World, a “4-D” spy-fi blockbuster shot in 3-D and enhanced with Aroma-Scope, which is to say scratch-and-sniff cards in homage to the prankster spirit of schlock cinema icon William Castle and ’60s Smell-O-Vision.

It builds upon the success of its 2003 predecessor Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, the most successful installment of Rodriguez’s franchise, which helped kick-start Hollywood’s 3-D resurgence. Throughout the Spy Kids series, Rodriguez pioneered the use of high-definition digital video and CGI environments.

“I’ve always been an early technology adopter,” Rodriguez said. “I just found it to be freeing. Adopting technology pushes the art form forward.”

Rodriguez’s next projects are even more likely to galvanize geekdom. He’s remaking pioneering animation director Ralph Bakshi and iconic artist Frank Frazetta’s groundbreaking yet underrated 1983 performance-capture fantasy Fire and Ice. Rodriguez is also assembling an all-star roster of directors to create another film version of Heavy Metal, which has yet to fully live up to its potential, despite the fact that, as Rodriguez explained, “everyone wants to be a part of it.”

Wired.com talked with Rodriguez on all that and more, including his highly anticipated sequel to Sin City and why his frustratingly postponed film adaptation of Mike Allred’s riotous comic Madman has had to dodge The Bourne Identity’s steamroller.

Robert Rodriguez merges 3-D with watch-and-sniff Aroma-Scope in his latest Spy Kids film, out Friday.
Image courtesy Dimension Films

Wired.com: What’s it feel like to be a digital film pioneer who’s way ahead of the pack?

Robert Rodriguez: Technology plays a big part of what I do, because I try to keep our operation pretty scrappy here in Austin. It bridges the gap between the ideas I have, which can be pretty big sometimes, and the small budget that I have. I really need technology so I can compete, so I can put a movie like Spy Kids 4 out in the summer that doesn’t cost the same price as any other summer movie. It’s pretty amazing when you think about it. Knowing how to use technology allows me to stay true to who I am as a filmmaker, and compete with these huge summer films.

Wired.com: Did you learn how to use it out of economic necessity, or have you always been a tech geek?

Rodriguez: Oh, I’m a big tech geek. But even when I was making El Mariachi, I wasn’t cutting up film. I was using digital editing, even back then, to get that movie made for such a low price…. I was the only one on the lot digitally editing Desperado, and I was an early adopter of digital photography.

I just think it helps you creatively move ideas out into the world. There would be no Sin City if I hadn’t shot in digital. Same with 3-D, which is back right now. Early on, I figured I could make a 3-D movie out of digitally putting two cameras together, so I could see what I was doing live in 3-D space. I tried it out for Spy Kids 3D, which was the first 3-D film in the multiplexes in 20 years….

Time and again, I’ve found technology indispensable. There’s a great quote that I always use from Pixar’s John Lasseter: “Technology pushes art, and art pushes technology.” Adopting technology pushes the art form forward. When you think of how to creatively use it, you usually come up with great ideas. And technology isn’t expensive. People tend to think that you need a lot of money to use a lot of technology, but it’s actually the opposite! [Laughs] I use technology so I don’t have to spend any money!

Wired.com: Can you give me a recent example of how you’ve done that?

Rodriguez: I wish I could show you where I am. It’s almost like a one-room loft. But right next to my kitchen is my bed, and right next to my bed is my system. And my system is … well, what is it? It’s got everything! [Laughs] I score the music there, I edit the film there, I use it to work with computer artists from across the country. It’s like a space station! [Laughs] It’s right in front of my bed, so I can roll out of bed and go right to work. And I do it all at home in Austin. It would blow people away if they could see it. The room looks exactly the same as the room I had in high school, except the equipment’s better. I always made my movies out of my bedroom back then, and that is still how I do it today, except that now they go into theaters in the summer in competition with everything else. It’s pretty crazy what you can get away with when it comes to technology. It’s fantastic.

Wired.com: Does your space station have Aroma-Scope?

Rodriguez: I didn’t tell anyone I was doing that for Spy Kids 4D. I kept it a secret from everybody; even my actors and crew didn’t even know about it. I was having them smell stuff on camera, and they didn’t know what was going on. They didn’t even find out until a month and a half ago when I announced that it was going to be in 4-D. I like to keep things close to the vest, so I can be very secretive about what I’m working on.

Wired.com: Dude, I must have a picture of your space station for this interview.

Rodriguez: I should take a picture of it! [Laughs] That would be great. But I’d have to put arrows pointing out what everything is, because there’s so much to see. There are five screens on my desk and each one does something different. On one of them, I can remotely talk to the people who are doing the 3-D treatment. Watch it in 3-D and write notes on the screen and send fixes back to them. And I’ve had that technology since the first Spy Kids film, so some of this stuff I’ve been able to do for a good 10 years.

Wired.com:Spy Kids and Sin City share a cool kinship, in that they both exploded full-CGI film environments. What can you tell us about Sin City 2 at this early stage?

Rodriguez: Some of the books we’re doing are prequels, so even if the characters died in Sin City, they would still be able to come back for Sin City 2. So some of the cast members are the same, and then there are some new cast members. But I’m excited about that one. I want to shoot it in a 3-D that audiences haven’t seen before.

Wired.com: Or in Aroma-Scope!

Rodriguez: I know! [Laughs] Sin City in Aroma-Scope! That would be pretty funny. And I think it would work great in the Machete sequel, too.

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