Robert Rodriguez Exclusive Announcements at Wizard World Chicago Con 2013 [with Photos]

Sin City and Once Upon a Time in Mexico director Robert Rodriguez revealed several exclusive news at his Q&A panel at this year's Chicago Wizard World Convention.  The rebel director lived up to his name when he announced that instead of merely producing his own tv show, he decided to just start his own television channel called "El Rey" instead.  He coupled this announcement with news that content for his new network will include a TV series of his Quentin Tarantino's movie "From Dusk Till Dawn."  Robert stated that El Rey will be an English speaking Hispanic station and hinted that we may the channel on the air as early as February of next year.  He also revealed that he is in the process of creating a remake of the cult classic animated film "Fire and Ice" which was based on the art and creations of fantasy/sci-fi master painter Frank Frazetta.  He went on to explain that his faithful reproduction will feature a more painterly style than the rotoscoped 1983 film as he showed us clips of the original film and pictures of concept art for his remake (check the jump for more!)  This project has been planned for awhile but got derailed when Rodriguez instead chose to produce the John Carter of Mars film (based on another book Frazetta worked on) and further pushed back with Frazetta's death.

Rodriguez has been a fan of the famous illustrator since he was a child and is currently raising money for his estate by selling limited edition Giclée prints of Frazettas paintings as well as oversized print shirts of the artwork designed by Rodriguez himself. The prints are limited to 100 each and range in price and the shirts are $40 all available at Robert Rodriguez's booth (2526.) Perhaps the greatest news of all was the fact that The Frank Frazetta Museum that is available to view all weekend at the Chicago Wizard Convention Room (for a suggested donation) is featuring the ORIGINAL paintings of Frazetta! The paintings have been locked in a vault since his death and has not been seen since and will probably never be available for public viewing again after this weekend!  These paintings are worth millions and this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to view them in person in Room 49!

In addition he showed us a short film of Sin City creator Frank Miller viewing the original paintings when they were being photographed by Rodriguez for the prints as well as old video of Frazetta himself showing Robert the paintings and giving some background on them.  It's almost unreal to hear that some of his iconic and gorgeous paintings were done in one night's time!  The man was as fast as he was talented and the world is truly worse off without his genius.  The director also treated the fans to some exclusive footage of his Machete sequel Machete Kills and proved that he could be quick as well revealing that principal photography for the Machete sequel took only 29 days! (Unsurprising when you also realize the resourceful director filmed El Mariachi for only $7,000!)  All in all he gave his fans some incredible exclusives, check the jump for shots of concept art for Rodriguez's remake of Fire and Ice: