Another inspiration for Rodriguez was his life-long love affair with 3D. He wanted to bring the excitement of sharing this kind of movie-going event to a new generation that has never experienced the fun of wearing 3D glasses with their friends and family. Rodriguez was raised on such 3D classics as “House of Wax” and Hitchcock’s “Dial M for Murder,” but for SPY KIDS 3D, he wanted to bring the latest computer and camera technology to the party. Using a high-definition video camera created by James Cameron and Pace Technologies for the acclaimed 3D documentary “Ghosts of the Abyss,” Rodriguez also designed rigs to re-invigorate and simplify the whole 3D process. Along the way, he also sketched, invented and oversaw the digital creation of some of his most sophisticated CG characters, creatures and vehicles to date.
In writing the script, Rodriguez was influenced by the idea that the Spy Kids, Juni and Carmen, are getting older, stronger and savvier – and more capable of serious espionage action. Accordingly, he upped the action, and the stakes, in this movie. “Juni and Carmen have become a lot more confident in this story,” Rodriguez notes. “And so too have Daryl Sabara and Alexa Vega as actors. Daryl and Alexa do a lot of things in this movie that would have been impossible in the first two. But by gradually facing and conquering the challenges inherent in the past movies, they were very prepared for this movie.
The writer/director also created the most complex and threatening villain the Spy Kids have yet faced: The Toymaker, a computer mastermind and brilliant inventor with multiple personalities. “I think I can most relate to the Toymaker because in some ways he is trapped in his own imagination. He has all these different voices going on inside his head, these split personalities that are always arguing with one another. On the set, I also have to split myself up – I’m the guy who does lighting, sets up the shots, designs the production and costumes, wrestles with the 3D, while writing (and rewriting) and directing. And none of those different people are ever in complete agreement with each other. So I drew a bit from personal experience in creating him, because I know how jumbled things can get when you’re trying to create something big while coordinating different parts of your personality! And at night, that’s when the voices would really start talking. I don’t get much sleep.”
One of the OSS spy organization’s oldest and most ingeniously insane enemies, The Toymaker, comes out of hiding to wreck havoc on the video game players in SPY KIDS 3D: GAME OVER. And in keeping with the movie’s themes, he’s a multi-dimensional character who can’t always make up his many different minds. To play The Toymaker, Robert Rodriguez thought of one person right off the bat: Sylvester Stallone. “The video game world we’ve created is such an athletic and extreme environment that it seemed no one could better oversee it than Stallone,” says the writer-director. “More than that, it was really exciting to have a chance to use such an icon in a totally fresh and comic way that he’s never been seen before. “I had met Stallone years ago. In fact his connection with the series was that he was actually in the room when I pitched the first SPYkids to Bob Weinstein in 1997. It was at the Venice Film Festival premiere party for COPLAND. That day I had hung out with Sly, and was delighted to discover what a truly funny and likeable person he was. I’d wanted to work with him since then, but in a comedic role, rather than in an action role. Stallone really went wild in the part of the TOYMAKER and we had a blast. He never left the set. Every day he was a different character. We’d shoot all the footage for that character, wrap that character, and start a new one the next morning. It was demanding and thrilling.”
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