How does one go from directing three animatronic bullfrogs in the popular Budweiser commercials to directing the kids' flick Mouse Hunt to directing Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt in The Mexican?

Only in Hollywood.

The Mexican opens today and its director, Gore Verbinski, is best known for a set of beer commercials that aired in the late nineties.

The Mexican, written by Joel Wyman, tells the story of Jerry (Pitt), a gangster who has promised his girlfriend Samantha (Roberts) that he will clean up his act.

But before going straight, he has one last job — retrieving a supposedly cursed ancient gun called the Mexican and bringing it back across the border.

"I loved the interlocking storylines of Jerry and Samantha and all the complicated characters that cross their paths," said Verbinski about the screenplay, which initially attracted him to the film.

"The Mexico and Las Vegas locations really excited me, and I knew I could have fun with the look, the color and the atmosphere of the film," Verbinski said in a press release.

The film, distributed by DreamWorks, had a meager budget by industry standards of $15 million. The supporting cast includes James Gandolfini, best known for his role on The Sopranos, and Gene Hackman.

The Mexican is the first of two movies due out in 2001 in which Roberts and Pitt costar. Ocean's 11, Steven Soderbergh's remake of the 1960 Rat Pack film recently finished filming scenes in Atlantic City, NJ.

The movie is continuing to film with an ensemble cast that includes Pitt, Roberts, George Clooney, Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, Andy Garcia and Sydney Pollack.

"I've known Brad for a long time," Roberts said in a press release, "and we had almost worked together a few times so when this finally happened, we both got so excited."

According to the March 2001 edition of Movieline magazine, Roberts will work with Verbinski again on his third feature film, also written by Wyman, currently called Project 3, due out in 2002.