D.J. Cotrona and Zane Holtz will star as criminals Seth and Rickie Gecko — two characters previously portrayed by George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino, respectively — in Robert Rodriguez’s “From Dusk Till Dawn” television series, the El Ray Network said Wednesday.
Don Johnson will also recur in the adaptation of Rodriguez’s 1996 horror movie as Sheriff Earl McGraw, while Jesse Garcia (“Sons of Anarchy”) plays a Texas Ranger created for the series that began production in Austin this week.
Rodriguez is directing the first two episodes of the 10-episode drama, and executive producing with showrunner Carlos Coto, as well as El Rey Network co-founders John Fogelman and Cristina Patwa.
The new network will debut in December, while “From Dusk Till Dawn” will premiere next spring as its first scripted original series.
The series follows the Gecko brothers escaping to Mexico after a bank heist left several people dead. Like the film, that Tarantino wrote the screenplay for, the duo take a former minister and his family hostage, then use their RV to head south of the border. The real chaos begins when they take refuge in a strip club populated by vampires, and the group must fight for their lives until dawn.
“If the movie’s the short story, the series is the novel,” Rodriguez said in a statement. “We have assembled an amazing cast and crew, and viewers can expect to be part of a wild ride when the series premieres on El Rey Network next spring.”