From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series

[Mitch Henessey]

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El Rey Network released the full trailer for Director Robert Rodriguez’s now-filming Austin, TX set of “From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series,” which senses a vampire presence, and proceeds to put a bullet in their faces…

D.J. Cotrona (Dear John, G.I. Joe: Retaliation) and Zane Holtz (Holes, The Perks of Being a Wallflower) play the notorious Gecko brothers from the cult-classic film of the same name, and Eiza González (Lola: Érase Una Vez) recreates the role of Santánico Pandemonium, credited for launching Salma Hayek’s film career.

Synopsis: Based on the thrill-ride film, the supernatural crime saga is centered around bank robber Seth Gecko (Cotrona) and his violent, unpredictable brother, Richard “Richie” Gecko (Holtz), who are wanted by the FBI and Texas Rangers Earl McGraw (Don Johnson) and Freddie Gonzalez (Jesse Garcia) after a bank heist leaves several people dead.

The series, created and executive produced by network Founder and Chairman, filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, will premiere on El Rey Network, Tuesday, March 11th at 9pm ET/PT.

1. Clooney and Tarantino are The Gecko Brothers. It's hard to picture anyone else filling their spots, especially Clooney.

2. I don't like the approach to recreate certain scenes from the movie. From Dusk Till has one of the best intros I've ever seen. It's going to feel awkward without John Hawkes, Clooney (new guy butchers Clooney's "Be cool" line), and Tarantino.

3. I'm uneasy about this "I see dead people" Sixth Sense stuff for Richie's character. If it's a delusional problem, then I could see it working out. But if they're trying to turn Richie into some kind of clairvoyant, it's going to be ridiculous.

From Dusk Till Dawn already drove the nail into the coffin for more movies with a series of unnecessary and shitty sequels, so a TV series feels refreshing. I'll give the series a try, when the time comes, because I love the original so much, but I don't have high hopes for this.

 

[Dowdsy McDowds]

This, to me, is like saying that Big Trouble in Little China should have it's own series. Or Dog Soldiers. Or 28 Days Later. Or any other B-movie film you can think of.

From Dusk Till Dawn is ridiculous. It has a sex offender, priest, asian, sociopath and virginal woman teaming up with a greasy Mexican and black Vietnam vet to fight Vampires (and the sex offender). If you take this film seriously, you don't deserve to watch it.

The reason the first film worked so well was because it knew how ridiculous it was that the story suddenly changed from a crime film to a vampire film at the drop of a hat. There was no reason that it should have done it. There was no reason that Cheech Marin had to play 3 characters. There's no reason you should see a human being used as a guitar and take it seriously.

As a crime/vampire/comedy film, it ticks the boxes. It didn't need a sequel, or 2 for that matter and it certainly does not need a TV series to drag out the joke and make it achingly unfunny.

 

[nightmare]

I think if they went in a different direction instead of using the Gecko brothers & re-creating scenes from the movie, it may work better. That right off the bat is a deterrent for me. You cant replace Clooney, Tarantino & Hayek like that. The new cast will never live up to those roles.


The sequels were terrible & I get the idea of what they were going for with this- but I dont see it working. If RR put a different spin on it the series may have had more potential. This just feels wrong from the onset.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

As a crime/vampire/comedy film, it ticks the boxes. It didn't need a sequel, or 2 for that matter and it certainly does not need a TV series to drag out the joke and make it achingly unfunny.

That's a big problem with the trailer for me. The original was fun, because it didn't take itself so seriously. Going by the trailer, you get the sense of a heavy handed horror drama, and this approach reeks of failure from the start. I still don't get the point of turning Richie into some clairvoyant, and I hope it's just a delusional thing.

If RR put a different spin on it the series may have had more potential. This just feels wrong from the onset.

That's what I was hoping for, when they announced the series a while ago. A different take on the story with new characters.

I don't know if anyone remembers, but they tried a Zombieland series last year. The story picked up after the movie, but they kept the same set of characters from the movie. The experiment was a failure, and they never got past the pilot episode on Amazon, because the reception was lukewarm at best. They tried to replace Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin with a set of relatively unknown actors and actresses, and no one bought into it. They're going to run into the same problem here.

 

[Randy Orton's Head Blood]

The trailer looks pretty decent to be honest.
I loved the film version of this & well, the TV Series could be pretty cool. Who knows? Mitch, I hope that your idea towards the TV series related to the Zombieland one doesn't happen because I couldn't bear to see another film ruined with a TV show.
However, I feel like this one may just be good enough to run for a season (at least).

 

[Dowdsy McDowds]

I cringed my way through the trailer. It just looked like some shitty college remake that knows how shit it is but is going to pretend that it doesn't care.

Once again, the first From Dusk Til Dawn worked as a one-off. Creating a tv series where, from the looks of things, they are going to re-enact most of the film then fart their way through shitty character development is a horrible decision when we only have 1 fucking Sin City movie, which came out 9 years ago.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

So they had the series premiere last night (didn't realize I actually had the El Rey Network until I started flipping through the channels at the last second), and it's a chore to sit through.

First of all, they confirmed my worst fears about Richie twenty minutes into the show. He's some of kind of clairvoyant with an "I see dead people (or in this case, vampires and monsters)" sixth sense. There's a scene where Richie envisions two hostages at the gas station/liquor store as monsters/vampires, and Richie's on the ground whimpering and screaming as they're (the two normal women from the movie) kicking him.

To make matters worse, the approach for reintroducing characters from the movie with different actors and actresses killed the show for me. D.J. Cotrona's Geroge Clooney impersonation is painful to watch, and they're trying to present Richie as a darker character in the show. Geroge Clooney is Seth Gecko, and his performance wasn't Oscar worthy or anything like that, but Quentin Tarantion is Richie Gecko. You can say the same thing about John Hawkes as the store clerk at the beginning. You can't just replace characters from the movie, and bring in a new set of faces to mimic the performances from the film (they actually use dialogue from the movie) step by step.

That's another annoying problem in the pilot. They're following the events in the movie step by step. I guess Rodriguez and others wanted some kind of "WOW!" nostalgia reactions from fans of the film. As far as the gas station scene in the movie goes, they'll show you what happens, when Seth and Richie go to the bathroom, and you'll learn more about the backstory for the hostages.

They're going with a more serious tone, and you'll see it with the intro for Santanico Pandemonium (Salma Hayek's character). Yeah, I can't count the number of times I rolled my eyes with the serious stuff. Santanico Pandemonium is supposed to be eye candy (think about the scene with Tarantino in the film) and that's it, but the series doesn't deserve 100% of the blame, because they ruined this character in the prequel (Hangman's Daughter).

Dowds hit the nail on the head with his first post. They're dragging the one-off joke into the mud now. From Dusk Till Dawn didn't need two more films, and we sure as hell don't need a series. I'll stick around for three or four more episodes, but if last night is a warning sign, then I don't have high hopes for the rest of the season.

 

[Dowdsy McDowds]

I sometimes hate being right

I finally watched the trailer for the show and it largely seemed like some college class was trying to remake a film for a project. It should have tried to be OTT and attempt to create its own identity rather than try to recreate chunks of the film.

At least the trailer for Sin City 2 is out.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

At least the trailer for Sin City 2 is out.

It's funny you mention the trailer for Sin City 2, because they premiered (I'm guessing, last night was my first night with the El Rey Network) the trailer last night during commercial breaks. The sad thing is, the trailer and the commercials hyping specials on El Rey (I'm not watching a censored version of Reservoir Dogs) were more entertaining than the show.

And I caught some "On Set" behind the scenes special for the pilot. They tried to make a big deal out of Rodriguez directing the pilot, but I didn't see anything special in the show.

As far as future projects go, Sin City 2 is the only Rodriguez film I'm looking forward to. Read something a little while ago about Rodriguez hinting at plans for a TV series for Heavy Metal on El Rey, but I'm setting the bar low for quality, if the final product resembles the FDTD series.