Robert Rodriguez Reunites With Jessica Alba and Michael Peña for Action Feature 'Incognito,' Filming in Austin in 2026

Robert Rodriguez is heading back to his home base. The Austin-bred filmmaker is set to direct Incognito, a new feature film that will shoot in Austin, Texas, beginning in October 2026. With Jessica Alba and Michael Peña already attached to star, and a producing team that includes some of Rodriguez's closest longtime collaborators, this one has the hallmarks of a marquee production with deep roots in the Texas film community. Crew based in Austin and across the Lone Star State should get this on their radar now, well ahead of what is shaping up to be a serious pre-production build.

Rodriguez needs little introduction to anyone working in the film business. The director broke through with the micro-budget El Mariachi before building one of the most distinctive careers in American independent cinema, taking in Sin City, the Spy Kids franchise, Machete, and Alita: Battle Angel along the way. He has also spent the last several years expanding into television as the co-creator and a key director behind The Book of Boba Fett and multiple episodes of The Mandalorian for Disney Plus, demonstrating that his appetite for genre spectacle has only grown. Incognito marks a return to feature filmmaking on his terms, and the cast he has assembled tells you a great deal about the kind of movie this is shaping up to be. Jessica Alba, who starred in Rodriguez's Sin City back in 2005, is returning to his world two decades later, and Michael Peña, one of the most versatile and watchable character actors working today (Ant-Man, End of Watch, Narcos: Mexico), rounds out the sibling duo at the center of the story. The premise, siblings Lena and Frank Aguila drawn into the secrets of a covert family business hiding in plain sight, sounds firmly in Rodriguez's wheelhouse: fast-moving, genre-savvy, and built around a tight ensemble.

The screenplay comes from Juan Carlos Coto, a writer whose credits include work on the horror anthology series Penny Dreadful: City of Angels and projects across the genre space. The producing team is a mix of Rodriguez's inner circle and fresh partners. Troublemaker Studios is Rodriguez's own Austin-based production company, the home base he has used for decades to shoot major productions in Texas rather than relocating to Los Angeles or Vancouver. That is a meaningful signal for local crew. Troublemaker has the infrastructure, the stage space, and the institutional knowledge to support a full-scale feature without needing to import everything from out of state. Joining Troublemaker are Brass Knuckle Films, Nickel City Pictures, and A Higher Standard, with producers Alexis Garcia, Tracey Nyberg, Jeffrey Greenstein, and Mark Fasano rounding out the producing team. No studio distributor or streaming platform has been publicly announced as of this writing, but a Rodriguez feature of this cast size and genre profile will attract significant interest from streamers and studio distributors alike as the project matures through development.

Austin is the production's announced filming location, and for Rodriguez that is essentially a homecoming. He has shot the majority of his career output in Austin, and Troublemaker Studios on Duval Street remains one of the most capable independent stage facilities in the South. Austin and the broader Travis County area offer a compelling combination of urban and natural landscapes, a growing local crew base that has been steadily deepened by years of productions choosing Texas over more expensive markets, and a generous state incentive program through the Texas Moving Image Industry Incentive Program (TMIIP). The program provides cash grants of up to 22.5 percent on eligible Texas spend, which has made the state increasingly attractive for productions in this budget range. Austin specifically has hosted a number of high-profile features and series in recent years, and the local talent pool, from art departments to locations to camera crews, reflects that growth. Department heads with Texas residency or a willingness to relocate for the duration of the shoot should take note: Rodriguez productions based at Troublemaker tend to hire with a strong Texas-first philosophy.

With a principal photography start of October 2026, the production is comfortably in early development right now, meaning the immediate hiring focus is on writers' rooms, development executives, and producers rather than on-set crew. That said, a feature of this scale and complexity, with a genre setup that implies a significant locations footprint, action sequences, and likely a production design workload that reflects Rodriguez's visually ambitious style, will begin staffing department heads well in advance of the October start. Experienced line producers, production designers, directors of photography, stunt coordinators, and location managers in the Texas market should consider reaching out and establishing contact now rather than waiting for the official crew call. Productions of this caliber tend to build their core teams from established relationships, and being on the radar early matters.

ProductionList.com will continue tracking Incognito as it moves through development and into pre-production. The full listing includes production company contacts, location details, and crew information that is updated as new hires are confirmed. If you are a working professional in Austin or anywhere in Texas looking to position yourself for one of the most anticipated local productions of 2026, bookmark this listing and check back regularly. This is exactly the kind of project worth pursuing early.

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