Robert Rodriguez Reveals Spy Kids 4 Came From Exploded Diaper

Those zany artistic types get ideas from some crazy places, but Robert Rodriguez recently revealed to MTV News that the idea for Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World came from a truly shocking place.

“You know, we did three of these movies, and then stopped because the kids were getting older,” Rodriguez says, “but families still come up to me and say they’re watching them, so 10 years later, it felt right to do another one. I got the idea when I was making “Machete” and Jessica came over to my house for lunch with the kids, and she was bringing her daughter out of the backseat. But her diaper had exploded and the kid had made a huge mess and just seeing Jessica dressed up, so beautiful and glamorous, but having to deal with this baby with an exploded diaper, I just thought, ‘I’d love to see her as a spy mom.’ I wrote it around her and figured she’d have two new step-kids who don’t think their mom is cool, but she’s really a spy and their dad plays a spy hunter on a TV show and doesn’t know his wife is a spy.”

Aside from spilling the beans on his stinky inspiration, the man behind the Spy Kids franchise also provided a few details about his latest adventure, promising a return of the original spy kids as they try to re-open the spy agency, and a brand new villain known as the Timekeeper (Jeremy Piven), a not-quite villainous bad guy who steals time away from you if you’re not spending it with your family.

Even though the last Spy Kids film came out in 2003, Rodriguez believes there’s still an audience for films that give kids power. When asked if there might be more Spy Kids movies coming in the future, he responded, “We’ll see what happens with number four. I know they want to make more of them. The reason these movies do well is that there’s not many live-action films that are very empowering to children. Parents could never understand it, but that’s why Power Rangers are so popular — because there are kids beneath those suits. Kids like and support anything that empowers and supports them. It’s a powerful idea to know you can be a kid but also a spy and you can strap on a jetpack and fly around the world and not have to have your mom drive you to the mall.”