Spying Young

Like all dashing spies, our hero looks sharp in a tuxedo. He has an arsenal of slick gadgets from the espionage trade, right down to a mini satellite dish wristwatch. And, of course, he's able to laugh in the face of danger. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. There are some other things you should know about Hollywood's latest International Man of Mystery: His tux comes from the juniors department; the hand attached to that high tech wristwatch is covered with warts; and those jokes he's cracking are more likely to be about doo doo than derring do. After all, this spy is 8 years old...and if it's okay with his mom, he'll take his juice box shaken, not stirred.

Welcome to the demented and diminutive world of ''Spy Kids'' -- the Weinstein brothers' latest franchise gambit in the wake of ''Scream'' and ''Scary Movie.'' Mixing equal parts ''Mission: Impossible'' and ''Home Alone'' with a trippy dash of ''Willy Wonka,'' writer - director Robert Rodriguez's $35 million James Bond for squirts also happens to be one of those ideas that's so commercially savvy it's mystifying that no one hatched the damn thing sooner. In short: Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino play a pair of spies who retire from the spook game to raise a family. But when they're kidnapped, it's up to their kids (8 year old Daryl Sabara and 12 year old Alexa Vega) to save them and the world in the process.

Strumming a beat up guitar and rocking back and forth like a giddy tyke on a diet of Pixy Stix and Mountain Dew, Rodriguez, 32, makes his pint size stars seem almost comatose in comparison. Frankly, it's staggering that anyone could be this revved up at 9 a.m. in the scorched hills outside of Austin, Tex., on this blistering 90 degree morning in May. Wearing a floppy Gilligan's hat, Rodriguez is slathered with a Kabuki like coat of sunscreen as he describes the first shot of the day.

It's a scene from the opening of the film in which Banderas and Gugino get married, only to have the ceremony disrupted by old foes in helicopters swooping down on their nuptials. To escape, the newlyweds skydive off a cliff with heart shaped parachutes to a speedboat waiting on a lake below. As he sets up the shot, Rodriguez's childlike enthusiasm is so infectious you almost don't know whether to ask if it's too late to invest in the movie or just hand him a lollipop. ''You don't understand,'' he laughs. ''I've had a kids' movie in my head since I was 11 years old.''

All this PG talk is a little odd coming from Rodriguez -- a guy better known for the bullet riddled bandido mayhem of ''Desperado'' and south of the border zombie flicks like ''From Dusk Till Dawn.'' ''Spy Ghouls,'' sure. But ''Spy Kids''? What business does this guy have courting the 5 to 13 demo? Well, aside from obviously being in touch with his inner third grader, the daredevil auteur, who crashed Hollywood's gates in 1993 with his caffeinated $7,000 calling card ''El Mariachi,'' wanted to be able to make a film his sons could see. But lest you think he's going soft, consider that his little boys' names are Rocket, 5, Racer, almost 4, and Rebel, almost 2. Jokes his wife and producing partner, Elizabeth Avellán, ''The next one, if it's a girl, we'll call Raven, and if it's another boy it will be Reckless.''

As wildly commercial as ''Spy Kids'' may sound, especially considering the dearth of movies for kids caught between Pokémon adventures and teen comedies, it's ironic that the film was actually hatched out of a box office flop. While shooting his segment of 1995's ''Four Rooms'' with Banderas, Rodriguez says, ''I saw the two little kids wearing tuxedos because it takes place on New Year's Eve and I remember telling Antonio, 'Wow, they look like little spies.' And right then I had the idea.'' Adds Banderas, still in his wedding day tux and sporting a pencil thin Douglas Fairbanks mustache, ''I knew he was dreaming about this since 'Four Rooms' but I didn't take him seriously until he gave me the script, and of course I wanted to do it because now I'll have a movie that I can show my baby.''

Actually, it wasn't until Rodriguez bumped into Dimension chief Bob Weinstein at the Venice Film Festival in 1997 that he knew he'd get to make his film. ''I went up to Bob and I said, 'I've got a deal for you: You greenlight three of my ideas' -- one of them was 'Spy Kids' -- 'and I'll direct a fourth movie of your choice.''' Says Weinstein: ''He told me the story in two sentences and then he said the title 'Spy Kids.' I said, 'Robert, okay, you have the green light.''' Of course, true to Weinstein form, the studio head called in his chit immediately, asking Rodriguez to make ''The Faculty'' two months later. ''I said, 'No, you're supposed to do my movie first!''' laughs Rodriguez. ''He was like 'We have to do this fast because teen movies will be dead next year!'''

A day after the wedding scene, Rodriguez is back behind the camera (in addition to being the writer, director, F/X supervisor, sound mixer, and editor, he also likes to be his own camera operator). This time we're inside Floop's Castle -- the freaky funhouse lair of the movie's villain, played by Alan Cumming. It looks like a gumball colored fusion of the minds of Tim Burton and Timothy Leary. A giant metal table has huge lava lamps for legs, and on screen the place will be swarming with screwy storm troopers called Thumb-Thumbs -- creatures with fingers for arms, legs, and heads that Rodriguez first drew when he was 11 years old.

If you're thinking the Thumb-Thumbs sound like action figures in the making, you're right. For ''Spy Kids,'' Dimension entered its first ever marketing promotion with McDonald's. ''We didn't know anything about tie ins at Miramax,'' says Weinstein. ''It's not like you could have tie in dolls for 'The Crying Game.''' McD's will toss spy gizmos like toy cameras and flashlights into its Happy Meals. On top of that, the studio is so bullish on the small fry saga that it's already signed off on a sequel that will likely start shooting after the strike and before the kid stars have a growth spurt. It's a pretty gutsy move for a film that hasn't earned a dime at the box office yet.

But Rodriguez brushes off any high stakes gamble talk, pointing to the film's relatively tiny budget. ''I think this one will be the most successful movie I've made,'' he says. ''I mean, 'Inspector Gadget' was about $90 million and we have 200 more F/X shots than that had.'' But before Rodriguez can sound as if he's boasting like a cocksure adult, he regresses back into kid mode. ''If you ask a bunch of kids, 'How many of you can sing or dance or write an opera?' they'll all raise their hands. But if you ask the same group 20 years later, maybe one person will raise their hand.... I want to be the kid who grew up to be the guy who didn't put his hand down.''

You Might Also Like

• Movie Review Spy Kids (Mar 30, 2001) | Owen Gleiberman
• Review Spy Kids | Bruce Fretts
• Review Spy Kids | Bruce Fretts
• Movie Review Spy Kids (Mar 30, 2001) | Owen Gleiberman
• All About Spy Kids
• Movie News What do you know about ''Spy Kids 2''? (Aug 07, 2002)