Cowboy hat rockin’ movie master Robert Rodriguez is getting ready to unleash another children’s flick this August, something along the lines of his trippy kids’ films “Sharkboy and Lava Girl” and the “Spy Kids” trilogy. Much like those older films, “Shorts” is a fantasy adventure flick that aims to take children’s imaginations to unimaginable places.
“It’s a kid’s movie and it’s all about a wishing rock,” 13-year-old Jimmy Bennett, star of the “Shorts” and the young Captain Kirk in May’s “Star Trek,” explained. “People make wishes that go bad.”
A new trailer hit the web recently and it reveals all kinds of craziness, including adults turning into hotdogs, Transformers-like giant robots and James Spader surfing a wave of money. “That movie is going to be awesome; I’m really looking forward to it,” Bennett said.
The young actor plays Toe Thompson, a routinely bullied 11-year-old trying to make a few friends. “He gets beat up on all the time... so he wishes for friends that are as unique as he is,” Rodriguez explained. The director, who balances his childish impulses with such carnage-heavy adult fare as “Sin City” and “From Dusk Till Dawn,” brings his same brand of weird to both sets of audiences. In the case of "Shorts," Toe's friends “turn out to be space aliens, so it raises a lot of havoc.”
If the film is anything like the trailer, we can expect plenty of the extraordinary special effects and wacky style that have become Rodriguez' trademark. “You don’t know what’s coming up next,” the director said of the unexpected wishes that pop up throughout the film as different people grab hold of the magical rock. “They may wish for telephonisis by accident when they [really] meant telekinesis -– so a telephone comes out of his head, and he walks around with a telephone for the rest of the movie.”
“Anything can happen,” the filmmaker promised. “And everything does happen.”
In addition to special effects, Rodriguez also spoke to us about "Shorts"' unique narrative style and the meaning behind the title. “The narrator doesn’t quite remember the order of the story, so he tells them in a series of shorts,” the director said, laughing. “It’s kind of out of order, but it all comes together.”
“Everybody has the rock from story to story [and] that’s what unifies it,” he explained of the film’s unique structure. “It’s a really fun way to watch a movie.”
Hard R, or G-rated? Which Robert Rodriguez films do you prefer?
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