Robert Rodriguez is an extremely busy man. Not only is he the featured guitarist in the band Chingon, whom recently performed at the SXSW Interactive Festival, he is also launching his own animation studio, Quickdraw Animation, his own Latino themed network El Rey, and he will direct two feature films before the year is over.
In April, Robert Rodriguez will reteam with Danny Trejo for the long talked about sequel Machete Kills. When that shoot wraps, the director plans to move directly into production on Sin City 2, with hopes of getting it in front of cameras before the end of summer.
No casting, other than Danny Trejo, has been announced for either project, with all plot details being kept under wraps. Robert Rodriguez does promise that the ensemble casts for both films will be of the same caliber seen in the originals, with quite a few unexpected surprises in store for fans.
On the animation front, Quickdraw Animation will be its own entity, separate from the filmmaker's own Troublemaker Studios. He has two feature films already in the planning stages, and the banner will likely launch with the debut of the long-gestating remake of Heavy Metal. The script of which is finally finished. The second movie is a family feature, which is also scripted and now in the storyboarding phase. Quickdraw Animation will be devoted mainly to making feature-length CG-animated films fully created by Robert Rodriguez's own in-house staff of roughly seven to eight people. All story and visual elements will be developed within Quickdraw before being shipped to a sister company for the animation finalization process.
The El Rey network will be primarily pointed towards the overlooked Latino male audience. Robert Rodriguez hopes that burgeoning talents in the independent film world will send in material to later be used on the channel, calling it the first "Cloud Network". This is what the director had to say about the upcoming platform.
"We need content! Go make stuff and send it! We'll be the first Cloud network. This is what we've been building up to do. To really step into more of a leadership position in the community to empower and help others. There's nobody really operating in that space. That's where the real growth is, in the Hispanic community. It's the largest, fastest-growing minority, but there's nothing really targeting them. There are 500 networks and none of them are doing anything in that area. So that's what I'm going for right there.
That's what's most needed culturally, too. You need to help not just reflect that identity but also shape that identity. Because if you ask any Latino, 'Are you Latino?' they might say, 'Well, I don't really speak Spanish, I'm not really American, I'm floating in between, and I'm not on TV, so I must not exist.' It would change people's view of themselves if they finally exist in this space."