Fans have steadily been gobbling up True Blood, The Vampire Dairies and Teen Wolf , and there are plenty more helpings of horror on the way. Amazon is still deciding whether or not to order Zombieland to series and Scream is officially entering the pilot stage over at MTV. Now, we can add From Dusk Till Dawn to the growing list of projects in development.
According to Coming Soon, original From Dusk Till Dawn director Robert Rodriguez unveiled plans for the show this week, while also unveiling plans for an entire new cable network aimed at young-adult audiences called El Rey, which he has co-created, partnering with Univision Communications Inc. The English-language El Rey – which is set to premiere this December nation-wide with initial carriage via Comcast – would air From Dusk Till Dawn as its first scripted series.
Rodriguez, who is obviously heavily involved in getting the network off the ground, will be writing, producing and directing the From Dusk Till Dawn series himself. The show will expand on the story and characters from his original film, while providing a wider scope and richer Aztec mythology. There is no word on if any events from either of the two sequels will be mentioned, but since Rodriguez only served as producer on those projects, we’re going to safely assume the show won’t go there.
It certainly makes sense that Rodriguez would use an adaptation of one of his more popular young-adult targeted films as a launching pad for the network, but considering the source material is a bit thin to begin with, it’s hard to imagine the series being able to sustain a long run.
That’s not to say there was anything wrong with the original film. From Dusk Till Dawn was a big slice of melty, gooey B-movie cheese that seemed unhealthy but was oh-so-delicious at the same time. It served its purpose in providing a highly-entertaining, action-packed vampire movie, but for it to work as a series, it would have to take more time developing multi-layered characters that an audience could build a more substantial relationship with.
Rodriguez definitely has talent and a unique eye, but his work has always been less focused on telling stories with rich characters and more concentrated on wowing audiences with over-the-top action and humorous dialogue. As far as we know, he’s also never written his own TV show. So, consider us interested and hopeful, but not overly optimistic. We’ll have to see how this plays out.
