As always, filmmakerRobert Rodriguezis staying busy. Just this year alone, he released the hit Netflix kids movieWe Can Be Heroesand on deck for release is hisStar WarsseriesThe Book of Boba Fettin December and his Billie Eilish concert documentaryHappier Than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angelesin September, and now he’s preparing to make yet another movie – this time withBen Affleck.
Rodriguez’s next film is an original thriller calledHypnotic, which will star Affleck andAlice Bragaand follows a detective who becomes embroiled in a mystery involving his missing daughter and a secret government program. This is an original film written by Rodriguez andMax Borenstein(Godzilla vs. Kong), and when Collider’s own Steve Weintraub spoke with Rodriguez recently aboutHappier Than Ever, he asked about the status ofHypnotic. TheAlita: Battle Angelfilmmaker revealed that while the film has been delayed due to pandemic, they’re planning on starting production in six weeks:
“It was supposed to shoot last April and COVID pushed it like six months, then it pushed again because COVID came back strong. Now we’re, fingers crossed, shooting in six weeks. We’re hard prepping, so I could be shooting that in the next six weeks.”
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While Rodriguez declined to get into plot specifics, he offered a tantalizing tease of what kind of movieHypnoticis and said he’s been dreaming up the project for the last two decades:
“It’s like a Hitchcock thriller on steroids. That’s all I can say. As soon as you see the first trailer, you’ll go ‘I got it. I’m there.’ It’s that kind of a movie. A lot of twists, a lot of turns. Very exciting. It’s a not everything you see is real-type movie and it’s got a great cast. It’ll be very energetic. It’s one of my favorite stories. I started writing it back in 2002. So it’s one of the ones I’ve had the longest that I’ve been wanting to do. I’m very excited that we finally might be making it.”
Rodriguez explained how the pandemic impacted the production of the film:
“We’re casting now. It was hard to start casting until we knew for sure we were going because the delta variant showed up and we thought this thing’s going to push again. Because it’s an independently financed film. Like Disney Plus could be like, ‘Oh, we need this product. We’re filming no matter what.’ But you have an independent film, you have to get insurance. Insurance companies are very wary right now for this variant that could shut a movie down because then they’re out of money. They’ll be out a lot of money. So understandably it’s risk. So, that we’re going is really exciting because it’s going to be fun to shoot and it’s going to be a fun film.”
The filmmaker also spoke a bit about the COVID protocols that will be in place when filming begins, noting that he’s going to be doing a lot of the jobs himself on the film akin to his earlier movies where he was his own cinematographer and composer. However, he’s got some familiar help:
“My son now is my full-time composer. My other son is my co-writer/producer. My daughter is doing storyboards. My other son’s doing the animatics, because he’s using his game engine stuff that he designed the sets for Heroes with. And then my other son edits with me. So, it’s a family affair.”
Hypnoticwill be produced by Studio 8 and Solstice Studios. Look for our full interview with Rodriguez on Collider soon.Happier Than Everwill be released on Disney+ on September 3rd.
