A little over a year ago, director Robert Rodriguez’s Alita: Battle Angel released in theaters. That film was a science fiction spectacle and a technical marvel, sporting incredible visual effects that demanded to be seen on the biggest screen in the best possible format, even if not enough people ultimately did that. But for his next film, Robert Rodriguez is going in an entirely different direction. That’s because Robert Rodriguez’s Alita: Battle Angel follow-up is heading to streaming.
Robert Rodriguez’s science fiction-horror film Red 11 will stream exclusively on the Tubi streaming service according to Deadline. The free, ad-supported streaming service has obtained the exclusive streaming rights to the director’s Alita follow-up, as well as his docuseries The Robert Rodriguez Film School.
Red 11 first premiered at SXSW last year and explores the world of medical research. The film has a meta quality in that it is based on Robert Rodriguez’s experiences in a medical research facility as the director signed up for pharmaceutical trials to help pay for his first film, El Mariachi.
In the new movie, college kids volunteer as lab rats as a way to make some quick cash. The film’s protagonist Rob, played by Roby Attal, is given the titular designation Red 11. Rob is trying to pay down a debt of $7000 (the same amount as the budget of El Mariachi and Red 11 itself) through being a part of the research but the lines get blurred when he thinks the hospital is trying to kill him and is unsure if he’s just experiencing the side effects of the experimental drugs.
Alongside Red 11, Robert Rodriguez is also releasing the companion series The Robert Rodriguez Film School that documents the director’s guerrilla filmmaking process. In the series Robert Rodriguez will speak to filmmakers and entrepreneurs about how to make movies the way he does. It basically sounds like a crash course in how to get a movie made in the face of obstacles like budget and time.
Both Red 11 and The Robert Rodriguez Film School will stream on Tubi. For those unfamiliar with the streaming service, Tubi is free, but supported by ads. The service is widely available on a number of devices including Android and iOS mobile devices, Apple TV, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, Roku streamers, Playstation 4 and Xbox One. So Red 11 will be free and easily available to anyone who wants to check it out when it drops this summer in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
The premise of Red 11 sounds suitably nightmarish and what it represents as far as showing what can be done on a micro-budget is inspiring.Of course, when you talk about Robert Rodriguez’s Alita: Battle Angel follow-up, many fans are hoping that you are talking about an Alita sequel.
There is no word on a sequel yet, but producer Jon Landau suggests that the Alita Army keep letting Disney know how bad we want to see Alita 2 and maybe one day it will happen.
We’ll keep you updated on any developments on that front. In the meantime, check out our 2020 Release Schedule to see what’s headed to theaters this year.
