Robert Rodriguez appears set to move forward on his next project, Machete Kills, Deadline reports. The script is now completed and production is being targeted for this April. Though the sequel is based on his 2010 film, Machete, that film was, in turn, based on a fake trailer that Rodriguez created for part of 2007's Grindhouse and the character dates back even further to an ongoing joke between the director and the star, Danny Trejo. In fact, the decidedly R-rated character actually makes his first on-screen appearance in 2001's Spy Kids. "We had always had the idea for the real 'Machete' movie ever since I knew [Danny] back when we did 'Desperado,'" Rodriguez told ComingSoon.net late last year. "We never thought we'd get around to making it, so when we went to do 'Spy Kids,' he needed a codename. We named him 'Machete' after the character from the movie we never got to do, thinking we'd never get to do it. So when we did get to do it, it makes it look like a really rich, odd alternate universe where my adult movies mix in with my kid movies." Rodriguez had announced last summer that Machete Kills was greenlit and will include a Grindhouse style trailer for the third (at the moment fictional) entry in the Machete franchise, Machete Kills Again... In Space!. The new film is said to have Machete teaming with the U.S. Government to take on a Mexican drug cartel and a James Bond-style villain who seeks world domination with a satellite weapon. The original Machete also starred Robert De Niro, Jessica Alba, Steven Seagal and Michelle Rodriguez. At the moment, there is no confirmation of who else beyond Trejo might be returning. Read more movie news and watch trailers at Maumau Web TV's blog posts or watch The Best Free movies on its 11 great channels.