El Rey Network Bulks Up Programming Roster

NEW YORK: El Rey Network has unveiled two new original series, Matador and El Rey Network Presents: The Director's Chair, along with announcing a licensing deal with Celestial Pictures for cult-classic martial arts films.

Production will start at the end of next month on Matador, an action series created by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman and produced in association with K/O Paper Productions, which is the writing/producing team behind Sleepy Hollow, Fringe, Star Trek and the Transformers franchise. Robert Rodriguez, the founder of El Rey Network and a renowned filmmaker, is going to direct the first episode. Plans are for Matador to make its prime-time debut just following the World Cup competition in July.

The network also lined up the new hour-long series El Rey Network Presents: The Director's Chair, which will feature the industry's most notable directors as they engage in an exchange about filmmaking. The first of ten prime-time installments will premiere in April. On the roster for season one is legendary filmmaker John Carpenter (Halloween, Escape from L.A.). Rodriguez created and produces the show, and will personally lead the conversations on several of the episodes.

Celestial Pictures signed a multiyear deal with El Rey Network for the rights to air titles from the Shaw Brothers library. This includes The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, The Sword of Swords, The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter, Executioners from Shaolin and The Flying Guillotine. All films come with an English dubbed track and English subtitles. El Rey Network will feature the films throughout its schedule and during its monthly Saturday kung-fu marathon.