The famous San Antonio-born filmmaker behind “Spy Kids” and “Sin City” returns to his hometown for a screening this summer.
SAN ANTONIO — What’s better than watching an action classic from famous San Antonio filmmaker Robert Rodriguez on the big screen?
How about following it up with a musical performance featuring Rodriguez himself?
Tickets are now on sale for the Rodriguez double-dose at downtown’s Aztec Theatre, which will screen the 1995 Antonio Banderas movie “Desperado” on Sept. 26. Following the film, audiences will be treated to a live Q&A with Rodriguez himself and, to top it all off, a show featuring Rodriguez and his rock band Chingon.
Rodriguez, the filmmaker also behind hits like “Spy Kids,” “Sin City” and “From Dusk Till Dawn,” said his band will be “performing songs from the movie and my other films.”
“Desperado,” the middle film in Rodriguez’s loosely connected Mexico Trilogy, tracks Banderas’ character on a bloody, explosion-filled journey of revenge. Rodriguez’s second movie, it was shot entirely in Mexico and costars Salma Hayek, Steve Buscemi and Cheech Marin.
It also marked the director’s full arrival as a genre-twisting storyteller with a flair for the exaggerated after he famously produced his debut movie, “El Mariachi,” for just $7,000.
“Desperado” premiered at the glitzy Cannes Film Festival in May 1995 and went on to achieve cult status.
Tickets for the Sept. 26 movie and show start at $35.
Now based in Austin, where he works out of his Troublemaker Studios, Rodriguez earlier this year announced a new venture – Brass Knuckle Films – that allows fans to invest in projects while also pitching new ideas to the filmmaker himself.
Last year his legacy was immortalized with a Paramount Star outside the historic Austin venue, becoming the seventh honoree and first from the world of film.