El Rey Network representatives said that a previously announced (to reporters) plan to give Microsoft Xbox users a three-day advance preview (on March 8) of the pilot episode of From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series is not happening.
Instead, episodes of the action series, which debuts on the Robert Rodriguez-helmed network on Tuesday, March 11, will be provided to Xbox users the day after they premiere on the network, representatives said.
No official explanation was offered for not going ahead with the preview plan, which Multichannel Newsreported on Feb. 26 based on a statement by the network's VP of consumer marketing, Chad Blankenship, to several media outlets at a breakfast gathering. One possibility is that the network received some negative reaction to the news from cable and satellite-TV distributors that weren't being offered a preview.
From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series is the first original series to launch on the network, which was created after Comcast promised slots to independent networks, especially ones targeted to multicultural audiences, in connection with its acquisition of NBCUniversal. The network also is carried by DirecTV and Time Warner Cable. Rodriguez, who directed the 1996 movie (written by Quentin Tarantino) on which the series is based, also is directing several of the series's 10 one-hour episodes.
Yesterday, Netflix announced a deal for exclusive international distribution rights to From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series, beginning March 12 in Canada, Ireland, Netherlands, Nordics and the UK and March 19 in Latin America. In casting news this week, El Rey said its second original series, Matador, will star Gabriel Luna and also feature Nicky Whelan and Neil Hopkins.
Pictured: Robert Rodriguez (left) and El Rey Network vice chairman Scott Sassa at the Feb. 26 press breakfast in New York City.
