Released by Columbia Pictures and Dimension Films
ETA: Autumn 2002
STATUS: Post-Production

Plot: Exact plot unknown, but is the sequel to Desperado and El Mariachi along the lines of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

Have you got or found a scoop on Once Upon A Time In Mexico? Email us now!

Latest updates


6/1/02
ComingSoon.net have posted a pic from Once Upon A Time In Mexico, along with other 'exclusives' from Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatre and Dana Carvey's Master Of Disguise. Go see!


23/8/01
UpcomingMovies.com list Once Upon A Time In Mexico as now having a Fall 2002 release!!! Man, this is the second time the films release has been put back. First from December this year, to Spring 2002 and now to the Fall. Oh well.


15/8/01
Aint It Cool posted some tourist pics from the set of Once Upon A Time In Mexico. They include three of Salma Hayek and Antonio Banderas' stunt doubles working on one of the films many stunts. Check them out.


31/7/01
There's a whole load of new photos over at Ricon Latino featuring all of the main stars of Once Upon A Time In Mexico.


23/7/01
Cult band, Tito & Tarantula will feature on the Once Upon A Time In Mexico soundtrack. The band have also featured in most of director Robert Rodriguez's movies including From Dusk 'Till Dawn and Desperado.

On to the shoot. Back last week they shot a battle scene that involved various extras clad in military uniform. They also used military vehicles armed with sub machine guns. The uniforms are identical to those worn by the Mexican army. The scene also featured a massive explosion.

Enrique Iglesius has also been talking about his first movie appearence. In an interview with El Heraldo, the singer praised his director and hailed him a genius, "Robert not only wrote the script, but he's a director, camera operator, editor and even composed some music for this movie. I am fan of Robert Rodriguez and I believe that there are not so many directors of that level and that talent as Robert". Robert Rodriguez Net home has a great pic of Enrique on the set of the film.

A couple of cool Once Upon A Time In Mexico related fansites for you. The first is Hayek Heaven (relating to Salma Hayek) and the second, Antonio Banderas Webmall leaning toward, yes, Antonio Banderas. Two cool sites that also update regularly.



6/7/01
AICN posted an article today, submitted by a scooper that included a description of a scene that involved Johnny Depp. In the scene, Depp appeared to be crying tears of blood. Hmm, freaky stuff.


26/6/01

Quentin Tarantino will not appear in Once Upon A Time In Mexico due to commitments to his own projects, in particular Kill Bill. He has still not finished writing the femme fetale thriller that may star Uma Thurman. Elizabeth Avellan was quoted in saying this from El Norte, a Mexican newsaper. "He's writing Kill Bill and he's not finished yet, so Robert told him not to worry because this time the role is bigger and requires to be more entrained," The good news is that Rodriguez has called in Danny Trejo to replace him. Trejo played the dagger wielding assasin, Knives in Desperado and has also appeared in From Dusk 'Till Dawn and in Con Air. "Here they have already killed me, we are filming the scenes previous to my death, in Desperado they killed me but in this I am the cousin of Knives, the pick up guy, this will be a very, very pretty movie."

Check out the two pics above, the first of Danny Terjo with his famous tatoo and the second of Johnny Depp on set. (Many thanks to Nadusha).


5/6/01

The press conference for Once Upon A Time In Mexico took place on Saturday in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Robert Rodriguez's Net Home translated the conference from Spanish language newspaper, Correo-gto.com.mx. Please check out their great Rodriguez site for the transcript of the conference in full, along with some more fantastic pics like the one on the left. Here's the report,

Before the question that as a scriptwriter and producer when he creates his ideas does he think of the possibility of winning an Oscar, he responded with a tone of confidence and in a jocular way: “for this movie yes”, since “it has a lot of surprises, much better than the other “mariachis”, he already finished the first week, up to now it will be my best movie”, it is said that “three times to do the correct thing and this story is different.”

And so it is that after Antonio Banderas suggested to him “we make another mariachi”, Robert assured him that in five days he would have a script “I began to write and I am still writing this Mexican adventure.”
“We are filming so quick that I don't know when I will finish, probably I will film this and immediately film Spy kids 2”, Robert pointed out.

Lastly, on the singer Enrique Iglesias' participation, (Rodriguez) only commented that three mariachi characters are included and Enrique belongs one to them and his scenes were already shot. (thanks to Nadusha)

3/6/01
Just had this sent in by a scooper,

"The Spanish media has mentioned that Enrique Iglesias will be playing a Mariachi in the film. He will be singing in the film as well." (thanks to Tania)

I've also heard that Rodriguez has been trying to keep Enrique out of sight on the set as he's been having having a lot of crowd trouble down in Mexico. This has been due to Antonio Banderas being on set everyday.

The release of the film has also been put back to Spring 2002.


Update: 29/5/01
A cast list was posted in Correo of Guanajuato on Sunday. Joining Antonio Banderas will be Johnny Depp (!), Salma Hayek, Willem Dafoe, Eva Mendez, Quentin Tarantino, Cheech Marin, Ruben Blades, Marco Leonardi and the already expected cast member, Michey Rourke.

So the regulars are back (Banderas, Hayek, Tarantino, Marin) plus the surprise of the presence of Johnny Depp.

It was also announced that the original El Maraichi, Carlos Gallardo will produce the movie alongside Rodriguez and Elizabeth Avellan.

On to the plot of the movie, 'Moco' over at Aint It Cool summed up the general feel and style that the movie will take; 'We're talking combining a double, triple cross story of Traffic with the gunplay of A Better Tomorrow and Hard Boiled combined. Robert has at the very least, 4 stories that intertwine into one tale.' He went on to say that the main story will centre around the assasination of the president of Mexico, and the Mariachi is hired 'to take out Gen. Marquez (has a huge score to settle with the Mariachi ), who has major beef with Mariachi to begin with. He sends Cucuy (the muscle for Sands) to shadow and keep tabs on the Mariachi. Marquez is working with Barrillo (head of the largest Mexican drug cartel ), and is about to assassinate El Presidente and assume power. Sands also convinces Jorge Ramirez (retired-FBI, has old scores to settle with Barrilla) to come out of retirement and take out Barrillo and Dr. Guevera (personal Dr. to Barrillo, killed Jorge's partner a long time ago), who brutally tortured and killed Ramirez' FBI partner.'

Antonio Banderas said in a press conference at the tail end of Cannes last week that the film will 'move much more through the land of comedy than the previous one.'

Man, I thought that Desperado was hilarious and still remains to be one my best cinema experiences! But this, is gonna rock!

The shoot was said to have commenced on May 24th.
(thanks to DenisA, Rodriguez Net Home)


Update: 27/5/01
Shooting location details. The film will be shot in the Mexican town of Guanajuato. The El Norte newspaper says that scenes will be shot in the streets of San Miguel de Allende and will give the movie a slightly fifferent look to El Mariachi and Desperado as the town has a more colonial look rather than the dusty, deserted borders featured in the two aforementioned films.
Coming Attractions


Update 11/5/01
The Hollywood Reporter has said that production on Once Upon A Time In Mexico will start at the end of May. The films plot will be based around The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. The latest rumoured cast member is Mickey Rourke who could play the 'Bad' character in the film. Quentin Tarantino and Salma Hayek could also be involved. Robert Rodriguez will also use the latest digital technology to film the movie, firstly to keep the budget down and secondley, Rodriguez is a huge believer in keeping up with the latest technology and digital is the future. The film will be a co-production between Columbia Pictures (who released Desperado and bought Rodriguez's El Mariachi and brought it to the worlds attention) and Dimension Films who released The Faculty. Rodriguez is also looking at releasing the movie this year, possibly during the Christmas movie season.

Robert Rodriguez's Net Home reports that the film's budget will come in at around the $30 million mark (Desperado's was around $8 million) and its shoot marks the tenth anniversary of his El Mariachi shoot; "I plan on returning to a down and dirty, more experimental style of shooting similar to 'El Mariachi,' this summer being the 10-year anniversary of when I shot that film," remarked Rodriguez. The site also stated that Columbia will take the domestic rights while Dimension will have international rights as Rodriguez is still in a three-picture deal with the company.

We'll bring you all of the latest cast news as we get it, and if shooting is to begin at the end of the month, details should begin to come through soon. It'll be interesting to see if Rodriguez regulars Cheech Marin, Danny Trejo, Tito Larriva and Robert Patrick make an appearence. We'll wait in anticipation.



Update: 5/5/01
If you were to type in www.onceuponatimeinmexico.com into your browser, you would find a groovy image loads on screen, next to it the words 'A Robert Rodriguez Film' and next to that 'Coming 2002'. Pretty normal for a movie in the works, except the the domain was registered by the guys over at Aint It Cool, so who knows what they've got up their sleeves? Pointless information but it'll be quite interesting to see what they do with the site.


Update: 4/5/01 -
Aint It Cool posted a scoop today of a possible cast member for Once Upon A Time In Mexico. Her name is Eva Mendes and her most noticible role was in Urban Legend: Final Cut. Anyway, they've got some juicy stills of her. They also stated that the movie has been greenlit just this last Wednesday (2nd May) and that Rodriguez is down in deepest, darkest Mexico hunting for locations for the film. All this in time for a possible end May/ beginning June start date.


Update 25/4/01 -
Page created. On the publicity tour of Spy Kids over here in the UK, Robert Rodriguez announced that he is planning to make El Mariachi 3, or Once Upon A Time In Mexico as he calls it. The film will be based on The Good The Bad And The Ugly and will probably star Rodriguez regular Antonio Banderas. AICN reported shortly after Rodriguez broke his silence that he would make the film before the planned Spy Kids sequel. More news on this exciting project as we get it.

This page has no intention to infringe on the rights of the film and intellectual copyright holders of Once Upon A Time In Mexico & hold copyright over the movie, characters, merchandise & storyline.