Danny Trejo Wants Robert Rodriguez to Direct a Biopic of His Life

Danny Trejo can be seen leading a crew of the undead in his latest film Seven Cemeteries, and the fan-favorite star continues to be one of the most entertaining in the business. Trejo also gave fans a look at the man behind those entertaining roles with his memoir Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood, providing a captivating glimpse at his unique journey to the screen. In a new interview with ComicBook’s Chris Killian, Trejo was asked who he would want to direct a biopic if it were based on his memoir, and the person he’d love to see in the director’s chair is Robert Rodriguez.

While there’s already been a documentary based on Trejo’s life with 2019’s Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo, the book gives additional insight into that journey. If the book were to be turned into a film, Trejo knows who would be perfect to bring that story to life on the big screen.

“Probably Robert Rodriguez, because I think he understands more growing up Latino than anybody I’ve worked with, as great directors, but it’s just, there’s just something,” Trejo said. Rodriguez and Trejo have already teamed up multiple times for their popular Machete and Machete Kills films, and Rodriguez has a host of popular films and shows on his resume, including From Dusk Till Dawn, Desperado, Once Upon a Time In Mexico, the Spy Kids franchise, Lucha Underground, and more.

The two would make quite the team to bring Trejo’s life to the screen, and as Trejo mentioned, part of that would be bringing authenticity to the story. That was also important for the book, and that proved a challenge early on for Trejo, who was working with writers who weren’t capturing his voice early on in the process.

“It’s funny because I wrote a book, my memoir, and I looked all over trying to find somebody. You know, they kept telling me write a book, but everybody they sent, you know, I don’t use words like prolific (laughs). Donal Logue, who was a really good friend of mine and he grew up Mexican. People don’t realize this. He’s from Ireland, but he grew up in El Centro, Mexico. You know, Kalief, I mean, right at the border,” Trejo said. “And so he didn’t know he wasn’t Mexican till he was about 18, and then finally somebody told him, no, we call you Rojo because your hair’s red, you know (laughs).”

“So me and him started writing and writing and I showed the writing to my kid’s mom, who I’ve been with, God, 40 years, and she said that this sounds more like you, you know, this is the way you talk,” Trejo said. “And so he was able to capture the way I talk instead of the way a writer does it. You know what I mean? And that’s that’s the way that book came out.”

Rodriguez shared his thoughts on Trejo’s book as well, writing “Danny’s incredible life story shows that even though we may fall down at some point in our lives, it’s what we do when we stand back up that really counts.”

Perhaps they will bring it to the screen at some point, but right now you can watch Trejo in Seven Cemeteries, which features Trejo in the role of Bravo, a recent parolee who comes into contact with a woman trying to save her ranch from a powerful and ruthless drug lord. Here’s the twist though, as after an initial encounter with the drug lord, Bravo meets a witch who brings the rest of his dead crew back to life to face off against the drug lord’s army, and somehow things get crazier from there.

Seven Cemeteries is now playing in theaters and is available on demand and digitally as well.