Banderas, Rodriguez Plan Desperado Follow-up

ByABC News
May 9, 2001, 7:39 PM

May 9 -- Antonio Banderas and writer-director Robert Rodriguez, the hombres behind the 1995 action film Desperado, are teaming up again for another western shoot'em-up.

Once Upon a Time in Mexico, which will start filming in Mexico this month, will be the third of Rodriguez's spaghetti western homages, after 1992's El Mariachi and Desperado.

Although Desperado was essentially a remake of Mariachi, replacing the first film's unknowns with Spanish heartthrob Banderas as the gun-slinging musician and sexy Mexican star Salma Hayek as his love interest, Rodriguez says that the two films were nods to Italian director Sergio Leone's classic Clint Eastwood westerns, A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More, respectively.

Mexico is loosely based on Leone's western epic The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and its title is an obvious nod to two other Leone films, Once Upon a Time in the West and Once Upon a Time in America.

Quentin Tarantino, who co-starred in Rodriguez's Desperado and From Dusk Till Dawn, is expected to return for Mexico, as is Hayek, schedule allowing. She is currently shooting Frida, about Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, in which Banderas is said to have a supporting role. Mickey Rourke, who was not in Desperado, will also join the cast of Mexico, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Rodriguez, who just scored a box-office hit with the family film Spy Kids, which also starred Banderas, tells the Reporter that he plans to return to a "down and dirty, more experimental style of shooting similar to El Mariachi." Rodriguez plans to shoot Mexico in less than 30 days and for less than $30 million by using Sony high-definition cameras.