His debut movie El Mariachi was made for just $7000 in the early 1990s and now, twenty-five years on, it looks like Robert Rodriguez is attempting to repeat the feat. The Texan filmmaker, whose films since have included the likes of Desperado, From Dusk ‘Til Dawn, Sin City, and the forthcoming Battle Angel: Alita, will challenge five filmmakers, Scarlet Moreno, Alejandro Montoya Marin, Bola Ogun, Bonnie-Kathleen Ryan, and Josh Stifter to make a movie for just $7,000, with zero crew, very much like he did back in 1992 with ‘Mariachi’. Rodriguez will add himself to that list and also participate in the challenge. No idea as to what the new Robert Rodriguez $7000 film will be based around, but we wait with baited breath.
The original, El Mariachi
New Robert Rodriguez $7000 Film On The Way
The filmmakers involved in the project will have just two weeks to make their features, which will eventually air on Verizon Media’s go90 Rodriguez’s own El Rey Network.
El Mariachi was released in UK and US cinemas in 1993 and achieved cult status fairly quickly. It paved the way for a sequel/ remake with a much larger budget, the Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek starrer Desperado in 1995.
Related: Robert Rodriguez in talks to direct ‘Escape from New York’ remake
El Mariachi (Carlos Gallardo) is a traveling guitar player with the modest desire to play music for a living. Looking for a job, he stops at a bar in a tiny town, where his simple, peaceful lifestyle is interrupted. Local hit men, expecting enemy assassin Azul (Reinol Martinez) to invade their town, believe that the visiting musician is the professional killer they are looking for. Unwittingly embroiled in vicious mob warfare, El Mariachi must shoot his way out of town if he is to survive.
El Mariachi is in the Guinness Book Of Records as the lowest-budgeted film ever to gross $1 million at the box office. It went on to take $2 million domestically by the end of its run.
