When director Robert Rodriguez isn’t testing the limits of technology or showing how a major motion picture can be produced on a budget, he’s developing features that both kids and their parents can enjoy.
After helming a series of popular Spy Kids features, Rodriguez is thinking bigger with We Can Be Heroes, a new family adventure film he’s producing for Netflix. Currently shooting in Texas, We Can Be Heroes follows a group of children whose parents are superheroes. When the superheroes are kidnapped during an alien invasion of earth, the kids must unite to save their parents and humanity itself.
We Can Be Heroes is set to star Christian Slater, Adriana Barraza, and Pedro Pascal in various capacities alongside several child performers including Andrew Diaz. Not much is known about the project beyond that.
This could be a game-changer for Rodriguez who recently helmed the science-fiction actioner Alita: Battle Angel this February. Some of Rodriguez’s biggest successes though were in children’s features. The first Spy Kids made nearly $150 million dollars worldwide upon release in 2001. The sequel garnered almost $120 million worldwide the year after. He’s used his name recognition to create a popular television channel, the El Rey network, and aid new filmmakers in getting their films made.
We Can Be Heroes sounds like it pretty much inhabits the same world as the Spy Kids characters, which should please fans of the franchise who now have their own kids. We’d need to see the film to discuss quality, though let’s hope it doesn’t hearken too closely to Rodriguez’s Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl.
There’s currently no release date for We Can Be Heroes.