The grim world of “Sin City” is getting a visit from some classy Oscar level talent.
William Monahan, who took home a statue for writing “The Departed” in 2007, will now wield his mighty pen on Robert Rodriguez‘s “Sin City 2.” This is the first major movement on the highly anticipated sequel in quite some time, with rumors and rumblings of a sequel knocking around ever since the first film became a massive hit, taking in nearly $160 million worldwide. Rodriguez hit Comic-Con last month and among the many project updates he gave, right at the top of the list was “Sin City 2,” with the director telling the geek set that the movie could roll in front of cameras as early as this year and that all it was waiting for a was a finished script.
“There is a scenario where Frank [Miller] has written a script for ‘Sin City 2,’” Rodriguez revealed. “It’s called ‘A Dame to Kill For’ because we’re kind of following the structure of the first movie where there’s three stories and a wraparound. So one of the stories will be ‘A Dame To Kill For,’ and another one will be a new story that Frank’s written. It’s called ‘The Long, Bad Night,’ so you get an idea of what you’re in store for. The script is terrific; we’re still working on it, but there is a scenario where it could be shot as early as this year. If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen this year.”
“[We’ll shoot] as soon as the script is ready. If the script was ready right now, we’d be casting right now,” the director elaborated. “We’re doing another pass on the script and as soon as it’s ready, we can actually shoot that. So it’s really, the holdup isn’t anything but, again, story and characters. People have waited so long we’ve got to make sure it’s really great and it’s the best version we can do.”
So it looks like for that second pass at the script, Rodriguez has brought in the big guns of Monahan to get it ready, which is a pretty big hire. The writer has been very busy of late, landing a couple of other high profile gigs, including taking on Joseph Kosinski‘s “Horizon” with Tom Cruise and recently being announced as the writer for the remake of “The Gambler” that will reteam him with director Martin Scorsese.
There’s no word yet on which cast members will be back — though Jessica Alba and Mickey Rourke are among those long suggested to reprise their roles, with Rodriguez previously saying that anyone who survived he first time will likely appear in the sequel. As it will be shot in sections all against green screen like the first film, scheduling for the cast likely won’t be too much of an issue, as they can fit in their scenes between other projects. And oh yeah, “Sin City 2” may be in 3D as well.
“I had an idea for doing that in 3D in a way it hasn’t been used before, which I think would translate really well to that format,” Rodriguez told Comic-Con crowds in July. Let’s hope he at least keeps smell-o-rama off the table. [THR]
