March 11, 2007 - While hosting the well-attended "Grindhouse 101" panel at this year's SXSW Film Festival, genre guru Robert Rodriguez was a font of upcoming project information. Typically not one to hold secrets back, the filmmaker let loose on a potential franchise he's always thought about one that would focus on Johnny Depp's "Blind Gunman" character from the Once Upon a Time in Mexico.
"I thought I could do two trilogies, but with only five movies because you could go El Mariachi, Desperado and Once Upon a Time in Mexico. But then Once Upon a Time in Mexico is the first one in series with the Blind Gunman where you do two more sequels, which would be Once Upon a Time in Mexico 2 and 3," explained Rodriguez. "So I thought, 'That would be really cool if I could do that.' So I cut together a trailer of some footage I had of Johnny Depp walking blind one night while we were doing Once Upon A Time in Mexico. I had Johnny come down to the edit room and I said, 'Hey, check this out.' And I did the voiceover for it while he was walking and I added music, and I said, 'The man with no eyes is back. Once Upon a Time in Mexico Part Two!' And Johnny goes, 'I'm there.' And I just thought, 'Wow.' I don't know if I'll ever get around to doing that, but I think it would be cool. I have all kinds of adventures for him."
