#98: The "Wizard" of Hollywood, Robert Rodriguez

Robert Rodriguez (@Rodriguez) is a film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, editor, and musician. He is also the founder and chairman of El Rey Network, the new genre-busting English-language cable network. While a student at the University of Texas at Austin in 1991, Robert Rodriguez wrote the script to his first feature film while he was a paid subject in a clinical experiment at a drug research facility. That paycheck covered the cost of shooting his film. He planned to make the money back by selling the film to the Mexican home video market. The film, “El Mariachi,” went on to win the coveted Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, and became the lowest budget movie ever released by a major studio. Rodriguez wrote about these experiences in Rebel Without a Crew, a perennial guide for the independent filmmaker. Rodriguez went on to write, produce, direct and edit a series of successful films including Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn, the Spy Kids franchise, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Frank Miller’s Sin City, and Machete. I hope you find listening to this episode as much fun as it was to record. For all links, show notes, resources from this episode, please visit http://fourhourworkweek.com/podcast This podcast is brought to you by Athletic Greens. I get asked all the time, “If you could only use one supplement, what would it be?” My answer is, inevitably, Athletic Greens. It is my all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it in The 4-Hour Body and did not get paid to do so. Get 50% off your order at http://Athletic Greens.com/Tim This episode is also sponsored by 99Designs, the world’s largest marketplace of graphic designers. Did you know I used 99Designs to rapid prototype the cover for The 4-Hour Body? Here are some of the impressive results. Click this link (http://99designs.com/tim) and get a free $99 upgrade. Give it a test run. Enjoy!