Sin City stars Bruce Willis as Hartigan, a cop with a bum ticker and a vow to protect stripper Nancy; Mickey Rourke as Marv, the outcast misanthrope on a mission to avenge the death of his one true love, Goldie, and Clive Owen as Dwight, the clandestine love of Shelley, who spends his nights defending Gail and her Old Towne girls from Jackie Boy, a dirty cop with a penchant for violence.
Welcome to Sin City. This town beckons to the tough, the corrupt, the brokenhearted. Some call it dark. Hard-boiled. Then there are those who call it home. Crooked cops. Sexy dames. Desperate vigilantes. Some are seeking revenge. Others lust after redemption. And then there are those hoping for a little of both. A universe of unlikely and reluctant heroes still trying to do the right thing in a city that refuses to care.
Their stories — shocking, suspenseful and searing — come to the fore in a new motion picture from co-directors Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez, and special guest director Quentin Tarantino. With verve and invention, Miller and Rodriguez plucked the stories of Sin City right off the comic book page.
Three Tales from the Dark Heart of Town
The central story follows Marv, a tougher-than-nails street-fighter who has always played it his way. When Marv takes home a Goddess-like beauty named Goldie, only to have her wind up dead in his bed — he scours the city to avenge the loss of the only drop of love his heart has ever known.
Then there’s the tale of Dwight, a private investigator perpetually trying to leave trouble behind, even though it won’t quit chasing after him. After a cop is killed in Old Town, Dwight will stop at nothing to protect his friends among the ladies of the night. Finally, there’s the yarn of John Hartigan – the last honest cop in Sin City. With just one ticking hour left to his career, he’s going out with a bang as he makes a final bid to save an 11 year-old girl from the sadistic son of a Senator… with unexpected results.
Sin City: Town History (Est. 1991 by Frank Miller)
Sin City is a town that exists – literally and figuratively — in black and white, a world every bit as stark and hard-edged on the outside as it feels on the inside. Only the rarest flashes of blazing color light up this city. Likewise, it is a place of deep contrasts. Contrasts between the corrupt, the power-hungry and the unredeemable on the one hand, and those still clinging by their fingernails to morals, hopes and broken-hearted dreams of love on the other. An imaginary metropolis drawn to be not just bad, but bursting at its seams with raw impulses and emotions.
The city was born in 1991, emerging from the heated imagination and skilled pen of modern comic book master Frank Miller. It was to become one of the most critically acclaimed graphic tales of its generation. Miller, a vital player in the modern revolution in comic book storytelling, had previously won fans — and a dose of literary acclaim — working on Marvel Comics’ Daredevil and the influential Batman graphic novel, The Dark Knight Returns. His mark on pop culture continued with the creation of such popular characters as the ninja assassin Elektra and the futuristic samurai Ronin.
He was already an iconoclast, but his stories from Sin City broke all previous molds. There are no superheroes in Sin City. Just tough-guys, hard cases, guns, girls, lovers and losers trying to make it through the dark, dark night. All exploding off the page in white-silhouetted drawings that riveted many who had never been comic book fans before.
From Pulp Origins to Digital Destiny
Sin City descended from the great American pop culture tradition of pulp tales. Like hardboiled crime novels and noir films of the 40s and 50s, Miller took the comics into an offlimits realm: the dark heart of the city. Here was the quintessential American urban frontier rendered with true grit. A place where the dialogue always snapped, outlaws were perpetually fighting the system, and a current of heated rage and sexual desire buzzed just under the cool surface.
Miller’s men were built like thick blocks of muscles, his women were drawn with pure seductive voluptuousness and his city was one of infinite alleyways, winding staircases and cold, steel monoliths. His stories were filled with hardboiled thrills, but also drew on classic myths and tragedies to tackle themes of human loss and yearning.
The success of the fictional town was unmistakable. Miller’s acclaimed books were honored with the prestigious Eisner Award and National Cartoonists’ Award. But if there was one thing Miller didn’t want to do, it was to entertain the idea of a Hollywood movie. He knew enough about them to know he would likely have to compromise his vision – the tightly woven vision that had made Sin City such an irresistible place to visit in the first place.
Miller: “In the beginning, I felt that it couldn’t work. Not that the stories wouldn’t work in the form of a movie, but that the movie industry as I understood it wouldn’t be able to process my material without turning it into something it wasn’t.”
Meanwhile, he was about to meet up with Robert Rodriguez. Miller: “I had simply thought, ‘I’ve got a good life drawing the comic books, and there’s really no need to let anybody have my baby.’ And I held to that thought until this Rodriguez guy started bugging my attorney, and then my editor, and then hunting me down like a wild dog, until essentially… well… I was seduced.”
Rodriguez has never been averse to risk – his diverse body of work has ranged from the ultra-low-budget classic “El Mariachi” to the horror film “From Dusk Til Dawn” to the hit “Spy Kids” franchise. He had been enamored with Sin City ever since he opened page one of the comic.
Rodriguez: “At the comic book store the SIN CITY books just jumped off the shelves because they are so visually bold and don’t look like anything else there. The minute I read them, the stories grabbed me, I loved the idea of all these linked morality tales and love stories revolving around this one dark city, which becomes a character itself.”
The filmmaker loved the books so much he wanted to literally translate a raw, unaltered vision of Miller’s SIN CITY to the screen – translate, not adapt. With everything he had learned about digital cinema, he was certain he could take each frame of Miller’s books – with every fat, black line, crisp silhouette and desperate character fully represented – and turn them into moving pictures.
“When I read the books, I felt that they were fantastic exactly as they were. I loved that the dialogue didn’t sound like movie dialogue, that the visuals didn’t look like anything you usually see in movies. It was so much more unpredictable than any screenplay. So I wanted to bring Frank’s vision on the screen as it was. I didn’t want to make Robert Rodriguez’s SIN CITY. I wanted to make Frank Miller’s SIN CITY. I knew that with the technology I already knew how to use – lighting, photography, visual effects – we could make it look and feel exactly like the books.”
A Test of Filmmaking Mettle
But nothing is ever quite that simple. Rodriguez expected Miller to be skeptical… and he was. Miller: “I was intrigued but very protective because SIN CITY is my baby and my home. It’s where I always go when I’m not doing something else. I always return to SIN CITY.”
Undeterred, Rodriguez decided on a different approach. He decided to prove to Miller he could turn his comic book into cinema without losing its heart and soul. Or the beauty of its black-and-white universe.
Rodriguez: “I knew what it would take to convince Frank because I knew what it would take to convince me if someone wanted to take something I had written, one of my babies. I had to show him that the concept was going to work.”
At his own risk and expense, Rodriguez shot some early tests to show Miller what he had in mind. The two met in a Manhattan bar where Rodriguez flipped open his lap-top and revealed the world of Sin City in kinetic form. Rodriguez: “Frank was floored. He said, ‘wow, that’s pretty powerful stuff, mister’ and I said, ‘Frank, that comes right out of your book.’”
Even with Miller coming around, Rodriguez had already planned to take one more step to convince the artist his comic-book world was going to be safe. He sent Miller the script that he had typed up. Rodriguez: “That’s why I’m not taking a screenwriting credit. All I did was type what I saw in Frank’s books, and then edited them down to pace. I transcribed three of Frank’s books into one script: “The Hard Goodbye, “The Big Fat Kill”, and “That Yellow Bastard.” “I knew he’d been burned before. So I was turning the process around for him, because usually it’s the artist who has to risk everything when someone’s making a movie of his work, and I felt like I should take all the risk.”
Rodriguez continues: “So I told him, ‘hey, let’s not even make a deal yet. Why don’t we shoot the opening scene on a Saturday with my crew and some actor friends, (Josh Hartnett and Marley Shelton), my effects company will add the effects, and I’ll score it and complete it up through the opening titles. Within a week you’ll be able to see the finished opening and decide if we should make a deal and continue.” I figured if Frank liked what he saw, we could keep going with the rest of the movie, and if not, he’d have a nice short film to show his friends. They shot the opening in just ten hours time. A blip in the movie world, but one that paid off with big dividends.
Hartnett: “Robert basically said he needed help convincing Frank Miller he could translate his comic book and I offered to be at his disposal. We understood it was kind of a mission and if it worked, there would be a film. I hadn’t read the books before that, but when I looked at them, and I saw how cool the world of Sin City was, I knew it was exactly the kind of wild world Robert can relay so well. It’s all so intense. The guys are all thuggish and hunched-over; the women are all in whips and leather. It’s like the old school noir tale taken to a new extreme. There’s been nothing else like it on the screen.”
When the footage was finally revealed, Miller was taken aback. And won over. “I realized that creatively, Robert is a locomotive. On top of that, he made it clear that he is unusually true with his word. And most importantly, I saw that he gets it, he really gets the material.”
Three Stories, Two Directors, One Vision
Once Miller was hooked by the project, Rodriguez wanted him to be at the center of it. “Frank’s presence on the set was invaluable to insure an authentic translation of his books. But I didn’t just want him there as a producer or a comic creator. I wanted him there as a co-director, so that actors and crew would listen to what he had to say and treat him with respect.” Rodriguez decided they would share directing duties – although this, too, would demand sacrifices. In order to avoid violating union rules that say there can only be one director per picture, Rodriguez had no choice but to drop out of the Director’s Guild of America to assure Miller his credit.
Rodriguez: “I didn’t realize at the time that it was against Director Guild rules to have 2 directors, but I was already convinced that this was the way to go to insure the best movie. Frank’s the only person who’s ever really been to Sin City. He knows everything about the characters and this world. I also felt he’d already been directing all these years. It’s only that he’s been using a pen and paper instead of a camera, actors and lighting. Frank is a natural visual storyteller – and he jumped in at the highest possible technological level and picked it up so fast it was remarkable.”
“As for quitting the DGA, it was just what had to be done. They didn’t want me, an established director, teaming up with a first time director. That isn’t allowed according to their rule book (which is as thick as the phone book, by the way.) We were moving forward in such a positive way, and everyone involved could feel this was a special project, that when the Guild came knocking on our door to shut us down a week before production, I couldn’t let anything stop us. This project just felt too right. Frank was not a first time director in my mind. If you read his books, you see that they are the best written, photographed, acted, edited and directed movies never seen on the big screen. To me he’s been directing all along, he’s just been doing it on paper. Like a movie, a comic is visual storytelling, and Frank has proven himself in that arena. The Guild still said no. So I resigned in order for us to make the movie the right way. Sometimes you have to break the rules to do something different.”
With that decided, Miller was pleased to still be in control of his creative baby. And now he believes SIN CITY may well change the way comic book stories are approached by filmmakers in the future.
Miller: “The whole production has been astounding to me. SIN CITY is going to be far and away the most faithful translation of a comic to film ever seen. What we found is that all those things filmmakers always said couldn’t translate from comics – the particular kind of dialogue, the fast jump cuts – well, we could make them all happen in a new way. I think comic fans and movies fans are going to be quite surprised by how different SIN CITY is from what has come before. There’s no trumped-up realism here – it’s more like a pure fever dream.”
Sin City: Meet the Locals
The population of Sin City is made up of those who must live, whether by choice or through circumstance, on the darker side of urban existence. Some have utterly succumbed to corruption, filth and evil. Others are still trying to survive with some part of their souls intact.
The casting for the film unfolded with unusual speed. Robert Rodriguez: “I had told Frank early on that we could get a great cast for this, because I knew that when actors saw what we were doing, making the movie faithfully from the books, they would came running towards it. When you have material this solid and fresh and exciting –it’s very easy to attract a tremendous cast.
On day one we met with Mickey Rourke, on day two we met Bruce Willis, and it went on like that from there. It was one of blessed projects from the beginning. The best part of it was that I had the opening scene that I used to convince Frank to show to the actors. So we’d meet with an actor, show them the books, show them the opening scene with Josh and Marley, so they could see exactly how it would translate to the screen, and that was it. There was nothing more we had to say.”
Those that audiences will encounter in Sin City include:
Marv: Bruce Willis
Marv was just born in the wrong century. He belongs on some ancient battlefield, swinging an ax into somebody’s face. But here he is, here and now. And whoever killed the woman of his dreams is going to pay. In blood. – Frank Miller
At the center of the first story in SIN CITY is Marv, a hulking, down-on-his-luck bruiser. Marv gets lucky one night with a beautiful woman who shows him tenderness. By dawn, she is dead — and Marv is determined to find her killer no matter the cost.
Playing Marv is Mickey Rourke, who previously worked with Robert Rodriguez on “Once Upon a Time in Mexico.” Rodriguez: “I told Frank I knew only one person who could play Marv, but that he’d have to meet him in person to get it, because he wouldn’t find evidence of it in any of his previous work. When I mentioned Mickey Rourke, Frank said, “The guy from 9 1/2 weeks?” I said, “You definitely have to meet Mickey.”
Miller: “When I met Mickey, he lumbered into the room practically taking out the door jamb and I wrote down a note: ‘Met Mickey Rourke. He IS Marv.’ He completely integrated and absorbed the characters. Add to that the amazing job by Greg Nicotero with prosthetics, and he looks just like the drawings. I was stunned at how completely my drawing became reality. Mickey was so believable and right as Marv that when I saw him at the end of production without the prosthetics he looked all wrong.”
Rourke became enamored with the town of SIN CITY: “I went out and bought the book at a comic store after talking to Robert. I’d never been to a comic book store in my entire life and I certainly wasn’t used to reading comic books. But when I read the story of Marv I was excited because here was this far-out looking cat who had lots of interesting things to say and do, and I thought, wow, this is going to be really different and fun.”
Rourke felt his mission was to stay out of the way of the character’s larger-than-life personality – and just let loose with as much of Miller’s vision as possible. “What’s great about trying to accurately bring a comic book to life is that you are in the realm of complete fantasy. So I didn’t try to complicate it. I tried to just roll with it and have a good time. The whole key to this movie has been in keeping with the integrity of Frank Miller’s work.”
The combo of Miller with Rodriguez on the set was another big draw for Rourke. “They both really earned my respect and impressed me, and together they make a great team. Robert is someone whose incredible energy just filters down through the whole production. And when you get a suggestion from Frank Miller, you know it’s not just coming out of nowhere but that it really means something because these characters are his. The two of them made us all want to do the best job possible.”
Goldie: Jaime King
Damn it, Goldie. Who were you and who wanted you dead? — Marv
Marv’s one-night stand and one true love, Goldie, is played by Jaime King (“White Chicks,” “Bulletproof Monk”). King explains the kind of dangerous dames one finds in Sin City:
“Most of the women in a section of Sin City called OLD TOWN are prostitutes because it’s something that has been passed down from generation to generation. They have an incredible amount of power in the town, but they are also targets. In the beginning of our story, Goldie finds out that her life is threatened so she has to look for a man to protect her and she meets Marv. He is someone who has a real sense of strength and power to him, but at the same time gentleness and sweetness. He can’t protect Goldie, as it turns out, but he can avenge her death.”
On a personal level, King found entering Sin City a mind-opening experience. “I had never seen anything like this comic book, or this production, before. Making this movie required a lot of focus but it also was something a lot like play. It was all about creativity, imagination and being present in the moment to make this whole other reality come alive. Pretty cool stuff.”
Kevin: Elijah Wood
He was a tortured soul, tormented by guilt. — Cardinal Roark on Kevin
As Marv seeks vengeance for Goldie’s death, he faces down a nightmare of a villain: the chillingly placid, cannibalistic Kevin. In a complete change of pace, Elijah Wood of “The Lord of The Rings” and Frodo Baggins fame takes on the darkest of criminal roles.
Wood: “It’s fun to deviate from what you’ve done before. The most exciting roles always go down paths you’ve never taken before and that’s certainly true of this one. It’s also been a tremendous challenge. I’ve been wearing a harness and doing all kinds of kick-jumps.”
A brutal character, Wood nevertheless found Kevin had his own form of soul. “He’s an intriguing guy, really. There’s something incredibly calm about Kevin. In fact, Frank was always telling me to be more calm. He is definitely a psychotic murderer but he finds a weird peace in hunting down and eating people, which makes him pretty unique in the world of crazed killers. In his own way, he’s looking for a kind of love.”
On the set in Texas, Wood was further seduced: “You have Robert Rodriguez who is passionate about these stories and then you have Frank Miller who is watching his work come to life before his eyes… you can say it was a very exciting atmosphere.”
Most of all, Wood was glad for a chance to enter a fantasy world unlike any thing he had seen; despite having been to Mordor and Mt. Doom. “I think audiences are going to love going on this ride through SIN CITY. There are so many elements at play. It’s a world where men are men, women are women, and good and evil are always at war. It’s an incredible place to visit — but you might not want to stay there!”
Dwight: Clive Owen
You’ve got to prove to your friends you’re worth a damn. Sometimes it means dying. Sometimes it means killing a whole lotta people. — Dwight
At the heart of another SIN CITY tale is Dwight, hard-nosed ex-photo-journalist and the one man the working girls of Sin City’s Old Town can trust. He’s tried to change his life. But when Old Town’s ladies come up against The Mob, and a cop winds up dead, Dwight is drawn right back into the fray to protect his friends.
Rodriguez and Miller cast Golden Globe Award-winning actor Clive Owen in the role. Rodriguez: “I didn’t know where we would find someone as rugged as Dwight in the acting world until I remembered Clive from these BMW commercials I’d seen a while back on the internet. He had a mystery and ruggedness that matched Frank’s books. He was the one character we were originally worried about getting right but Clive owns the role.”
Miller: “Clive Owen is a terrific actor. He provided just the note we needed. Dwight is a man in a maze: things just keep happening to him but he tries to keep his head up and protect his people. His story is about friendship and survival. Clive brings such smoothness to it — he’s able to maneuver his way through incredible events and never wink at the audience. There’s no self-mockery in his performance at all.”
Owen found himself drawn to the surreal contours of SIN CITY: “There’s something very strong and very clear about all of Frank Miller’s characters which was extremely attractive to me. The books are vibrant, witty and surprisingly full of humor. Yes, they are violent, but not in a nasty way. The violence becomes a part of the wit and the style and part of this kind of fantastical background.”
He was also enamored of Dwight, flaws and all. “Dwight is a man, like a lot of men, with a soft spot for the ladies – but this makes him very fallible. He’s very much in keeping with the whole picture of SIN CITY. Uncertain of what playing a comic book character might be like, Owen found it a lot more thrilling of an experience than expected. “As an actor, I found it surprisingly liberating to try to be faithful to something that has already been created on the page. It felt completely different from anything else I’ve ever done, which is always exciting.”
Rodriguez: “I had a feeling that these actors were really going to enjoy bringing the pages to life. Frank drew and directed his paper characters so wonderfully, we could use them as a benchmark for not just attitude but emotion. For the actors to get to that same place in their performances was what it was all about. Filling in the blanks that exist between the panels was also a wonderful challenge for everyone. The actors were also free to truly become someone else.”
Gail: Rosario Dawson
She’s the boss. Beautiful. Merciless. Any of the Old Town girls are hair-trigger ready to die – or to kill – for her. And they wind up doing both. Plenty of both. — Frank Miller
As Dwight’s story unfolds, he must team up with the heavenly and fierce Gail, the leader of Sin City’s prostitutes, who once saved Dwight’s life and helped him gain a new identity. Gail, a vision in thigh-high, leather-strapped stilettos and an Uzi, is played by Rosario Dawson (“Alexander”).
Miller: “Gail is a very demanding role because she has to be so many different things. Obviously, she has to be very sexy. But she’s also angry, fiery and quite funny. Rosario seems to do all this in a walk. She was able to personify everything I know about Gail.”
From the start, Dawson was inspired by Miller’s drawings of SIN CITY – and Robert Rodriguez’s audacious dream to transfer the drawings to the screen.
Dawson: “Once I started reading the books, I was blown away. Then, when I got to the set and I was able to see how it was being photographed, how committed everyone was to bringing it to life, and how all these actors were just being transformed with prosthetics, I couldn’t believe how stylized and cool it all was. The great thing is that Frank has a complete understanding of the world of SIN CITY and Robert has a complete understanding of how to make it all happen on screen. There’s this really cool vibe between the two of them as together, they cover all of the angles.”
Dawson also developed a soft spot for Gail as Miller had drawn her: “Gail is an amazing character. She’s sort of ‘the law’ in Old Town and she walks around kind of like the Sheriff. She’s very strong, very intense, and very comfortable in this crazy world. She’s definitely someone who lives on the edge and what makes the love story between her and Dwight so interesting is that he’s someone who would like to get out of Sin City and she just accepts it for what it is.”
The actress had a blast with her portrayal. “For me, every time I would get in her costume and do the hair and the makeup, I would feel like I was becoming this wild, insane, crazy woman but at the same time, I love Gail because she’s someone who at every second is willing to go the nth degree and she’s having a good time. You have to respect that.”
Shellie: Brittany Murphy
I ain’t playing hard to get. I’m impossible to get. — Shellie
One of Frank Miller’s favorite characters in SIN CITY is local waitress Shellie, who traverses all three stories in the film, but is key to Dwight’s tale. When Shellie’s attention to Dwight triggers Jackie Boy’s anger, a rampage results. To play Shellie, Miller and Rodriguez cast Brittany Murphy, who has been seen in such films as “8 Mile” and “Little Black Book.”
Rodriguez: “I came very close to casting Brittany in THE FACULTY, and had always wanted to work with her. When I saw the character of Shellie, I knew there was only one gal that could bring her to life. So I had her come in and meet Frank.”
Miller found Murphy had an almost mysterious connection to his vision of Shellie: “When I was drawing the book, I just loved Shellie: her sassy attitude, the way she talked. As I was lettering the balloons I always thought her voice should crack, but there was no way to do that in a cartoon. So then several years later comes along this lady who looks like my character to begin with, and then she starts reading my lines, and her voice is cracking all over the place. What can I say? I was smitten.”
Murphy was also taken by the character: “I thought it was cool to be the one character who drifts through all the stories. I only got to be Shellie for two days, but she left a big imprint on me. She’s not one of the ass-kicking Old Town girls — yet she has adapted very well to that environment. She’s sort of a throwback to the 30s or 40s era,” which I love.”
Like her cast mates, Murphy soon got into the groove of inhabiting this town just past the edge of reality. Murphy: “What I loved most about SIN CITY is that it became an experience of immense creative freedom. We were creating an alternate universe, a smart, funny, amazing looking alternate universe. There were times when I thought, wow, I can’t believe this is my job because I’m having such an incredible time.”
Jackie Boy: Benicio Del Toro
I may be dead, but you are screwed! — Jackie Boy
Jackie Boy, the once noble, now corrupted cop who stirs up a whole lot of trouble in Sin City’s Old Town, is played by Academy Award winner Benicio Del Toro. For Frank Miller, watching Del Toro transform into a raging beast of a man – who plays a portion of his scenes dead with a gun muzzle seared through his head — was one of the highlights of the picture.
Miller: “Benicio brought an awful lot to the enterprise. He didn’t come in trying to change things but to bring them to fruition – yet he did it in unpredictable ways. He is an unusually gifted physical actor who uses his formidable presence to great advantage. There were many times I would look at how he was moving and realize that was exactly how I had drawn Jackie Boy.”
Del Toro was intrigued by the challenge of somehow turning frames on a page into visceral flesh and blood. “The book SIN CITY is a template but it’s more like looking at stills. As actors, we had to figure out how you get something dynamic out of that. You have to fill in the gaps between the frames and really use your imagination, which is a great thing to do. I think SIN CITY is a new kind of film noir. It’s a slick, dark, make-believe world in which the heroes are snappy but the villains are snappier, and there’s always another bad guy waiting around the next corner.”
To go deeper, Del Toro chatted with Frank Miller about Jackie’s back-story. “Jackie is someone who was a hero but got lost in the glory of it all. He’s turned into a bully, into a guy who believes he can get away with anything. He’s a selfish mad man with a license to kill. He’s sort of the perfect villain . . . and he gets his due. You could say he gets a wound or two.”
Del Toro also worked closely with Greg Nicotero and the KNB team to make sure the look of Jackie Boy went every bit as far as Miller had in the comic.
Del Toro: “I just thought this was the right film to really go to town with the look. I loved working with these genius guys and throwing curveballs at them, asking them things like ‘how can I have smoke coming out of my throat?’ In the end, they were terrific. We all share a love of the old classic monster movies.”
Miho: Devon Aoki
Another of Frank Miller’s favorite characters is Miho, the silent yet deadliest of the Old Town girls, played by Devon Aoki (“2 Fast 2 Furious,” “DEBS”). A kind of urban, female samurai, Aoki cuts up the screen with the same swords Uma Thurman used in Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” films.
Aoki adored her character’s purity of emotion: “Miho is very fierce and a wonderful character. What’s great too is that Frank Miller is so passionate about her. He really helped me to understand where she is coming from and how to embody her. She can be a challenge because she doesn’t speak – so her actions have to speak loud and clear. I also loved being a part of Sin City’s Old Town, because it’s the place where women call all the shots. There’s a lot of girl power in SIN CITY.”
The actress trained with three different karate instructors to gain Miho’s physical prowess and sword-fighting skills. “Mentally I tried to get as close to this tough assassin of a character as a could, which also meant intense physical training. It was incredible to learn how to use her whole arsenal: the Kitano sword, the bows and arrows, the staff. I think people are really going to enjoy all the details of this character that Frank and Robert bring to life.”
Frank Miller has the same feeling. Miller: “I loved Miho so much when I first started drawing her. She’s a character who comes, in a way, from a different realm than the rest of Sin City. She has more magic than the others. She’s also a character of great mystery. In Sin City, everybody talks a lot, but Miho never says a word. She is silent but completely and utterly lethal.”
“It was hard for me to imagine finding somebody who could bring Miho to life, but Devon with those eyes and the superb way she moves is remarkable. It was a real treat working with her.”
Manute: Michael Clarke Duncan
Nobody knows where he came from, and nobody ever will. He serves his masters ruthlessly. Efficiently. Brutally. Mercilessly. Pray you never meet him. The moment you do will likely be your last. – Frank Miller
A man so immense his punch is like a freight train, Manute is at once enigmatic and lethal. He is played by Michael Clarke Duncan, who garnered an Academy Award nomination as the gentle giant in “The Green Mile” and who previously starred as The Kingpin in “Daredevil,” also based on Frank Miller’s comic. Duncan was thrilled to have the chance to embody Miller’s work again… but in a whole new way.
Michael Clarke Duncan: “When I first heard they were going to do everything on film exactly the way it is in the comic book, I thought they were crazy, but I’m here to tell you they’re not. This is so unlike anything anyone has done before, I think audiences will be blown away.”
Duncan sees his character as something like a modern-day myth. “Manute is the ultimate bodyguard, the guy who will take any orders. This guy, he gets sliced up, he gets shot, but he keeps coming back. He’s like a fabled creature that nobody quite understands. He always rises from the ashes and you can’t defeat him.”
Hartigan: Bruce Willis
Honor bound. A knight in blood-caked, grimy armor. Cop John Hartigan will sacrifice everything – his marriage, his job, his honor, his freedom, his dignity – all for the sake of a skinny little 11 year old girl – Frank Miller
If there is one pure hero in Sin City, John Hartigan is it. The last honest cop in town, he’s finally about to retire. But he has a final mission: to save the 11 year-old Nancy Callahan from the clutches of the deranged Senator’s son, Roark Jr. To play Hartigan, Robert Rodriguez immediately thought of Bruce Willis.
Rodriguez: “I knew right away Bruce Willis would have to be Hartigan. I’d seen an old ‘Moonlighting’ episode that I’d kept forever on tape where he played a hard-boiled detective. It was a comedic tone but he played it very straight, and he looks great in black-and-white. So I showed him the opening scenes and before it was even over, he said ‘I’m in.’”
Meanwhile, Frank Miller was surprised by Willis’ devotion: “I’m thinking as a first-time director, Bruce Willis is going to mop up the floor with me. Instead, Bruce came in with a love of the material and was an absolute dream to work with. He understood that his character had a lot of Raymond Chandler in him. And he certainly understood Raymond Chandler’s theory that this kind of character is a modern-day knight. He gave a beautiful performance. If Mickey Rourke is the film’s Dionysus, Bruce is our Apollo.”
Willis, already a fan of Miller’s hard-boiled town, was recruited through Rodriguez’s early footage. “It was the most visually startling piece of film I’d ever seen. It was just riveting. I’d been a fan of Frank Miller’s Sin City for a long time – I’ve always been a fan of dark, poetic, hard-bitten stories — but I didn’t think anyone could come up with a way to actually shoot them until Robert invented this new digital filmmaking style.”
Willis was also a fan of Hartigan. “When we first meet him, he’s a man who’s mostly hoping to get home to his wife and away from this city of crime. But he can’t quite do it, because there’s this one thing he hasn’t taken care of. Hartigan really stands out in Sin City because he has this high moral code and a strong, driving set of ethics. Hartigan traded away his life for the life of this young girl and that’s a powerful thing. In the war between good and evil, Hartigan falls on the right side.”
Nancy: Jessica Alba
Imagine you find your way the sleaziest saloon on the planet. The place stinks, with all the usual stinks. There’s a stage. The lights come up. You expect the worst. Then out dances an Angel. Perfect. Graceful. Beautiful. A dream come true. Nancy. Nancy Callahan. She amazes. – Frank Miller
Now known as the sweetheart of Sin City, Nancy Callahan is seen in two incarnations. First, she is an 11 year-old girl in the most dire danger. Then, she is an alluring 19 year-old exotic dancer who shines a light in the dark of the city.
Frank Miller explains: “Nancy is really the symbol of Sin City, this angel who suddenly appears in the most disturbing of places, and she is played beautifully by both Makenzie Vega (as a little girl) and Jessica Alba.”
Jessica Alba (“Honey”) was immediately moved by Nancy’s story and demeanor. “She’s drawn as this doe-eyed, sweet girl with a softer side and I wanted to do this because it’s an area I haven’t really been able to explore a whole lot. As I read the book, I cried because her story is so beautiful, it’s such a romantic love story, and I knew I had to do it. Nancy is the one person in Sin City who is very hopeful.”
“Nancy wears her heart on her shoulder and I wish I could wear mine like that a little more. It’s wonderful to play somebody who is so perfectly soft and vulnerable all the time, but also confident and strong.”
Alba also was thrilled to play scenes opposite Bruce Willis. “He’s shockingly generous for someone of his stature. He’s also incredibly good at playing the pain and struggle of knowing that you’re never going to be everything that you want to be. Hartigan’s looks are filled with love that hurts and it’s very cool.”
Yellow Bastard: Nick Stahl
The little snot. He ought to be dead. But here he is. Back in action. And he smells awful… – Frank Miller
At the heart of John Hartigan’s story lies his nemesis, Roark Jr. (AKA “That Yellow Bastard”), a demented sociopath who is later physically transformed into a creature as ugly, yellow and downright odorous as his personality.
Playing Roark Jr. and Yellow Bastard, under a veil of makeup, is Nick Stahl (“Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,” “Carnivale”). Originally, Miller and Rodriguez were going to cast two separate actors as Roark Jr. and Yellow Bastard, but Stahl convinced Rodriguez to let him do both.
Rodriguez: “I wasn’t sure at first so I asked Nick to leave me some messages in Yellow Bastard’s distinct voice on my answering machine. In the story, the voice is the only thing that Hartigan can recognize after the transformation. I knew that if he could get the voice right, that he’d nail it, cause Nick is a terrific actor. I had actually completely forgotten about it when I started getting these really creepy messages and of course, I gave him the role.”
Stahl: “What I loved is that because Frank Miller’s story has such a heightened reality and such a larger-than-life story, there’s no real fear of going too far with something. It’s fun to play this sort of fantasy character who is so obnoxious and out for vengeance.” Once fully transformed into Yellow Bastard, even Frank Miller was creeped out by Nick Stahl’s performance. “Nick Stahl was genuinely terrifying. I don’t know how he did everything that he did underneath all that makeup. The effects that KNB created make him look just like a horrifying drawing. I think Yellow Bastard will remind people of just how scary a comic book character can be.”
Sin City: How the Town Was Built
Like all towns, Sin City started with a singular blueprint: Frank Miller’s drawings and stories. With these in hand, Rodriguez looked for ways to peel the pictures right off the page and onto the screen. Rodriguez’s pioneering stance on the creative potential of digital filmmaking led to a whole new way of approaching a comic-based film.
With painting effects, costumes, makeup prosthetics and a noir black-and-white aesthetic layered over the performances, the world Miller’s forged in his Sin City drawings did not so much change as become charged with cinematic life. Ultimately, Miller’s books laid side-by-side with frames from the film would match up in detail for detail:
As the cinematographer and visual effects supervisor, Rodriguez knew he would have to journey to the edges of digital filmmaking to capture the rainy, gritty, rough-edged sheen that sets apart the environs of Sin City. Rodriguez: “The trick was to capture what’s visually startling about the books. It had to be shot entirely on green screen because the visuals and lighting in Frank’s books are physically impossible.”
It was a trip Rodriguez was ready for, having pioneered similar techniques in the cutting-edge family adventure “Spy Kids.” Rodriguez used the very latest high-definition (HD) cameras to shoot actors in stylized makeup and costumes performing entirely against green screens. Later, highly skilled effects teams would be able to manipulate computergenerated backgrounds stripped right from the comic book designs to make the whole look and feel match Miller’s work.
It was a kind of daring, risky, unconventional filmmaking that excited Miller, despite being a neophyte. Miller: “What’s interesting is that the process Robert explained to me, using the green screen and everything, greatly resembles drawing. It’s really a matter of creating elements and moving them about, just as you would on a piece of paper.”
Rodriguez, who also drew comics early in life, agrees: “With the green screen, it’s as if you’re drawing the subject first, with the actor’s performance, and then you fill in the background with the computer-generated city. This process was not only familiar; it also allowed us to really focus foremost on the actors bringing the characters to life. When you don’t have to spend a lot of time on set-ups, worrying about sets that aren’t there, the performances don’t lose their momentum and stay very fresh.”
To Troublemaker
The high-tech equipment, skilled crew and creative atmosphere needed for SIN CITY were already in place at Rodriguez’s Austin, Texas Troublemaker Studios. When he and Elizabeth Avellan founded Troublemaker they planned to do just that: stir up lots of trouble in the movie-making world by creating a studio that emphasized creative freedom and wild sense of play – backed up by a talented, devoted family of crafts-people.
Rodriguez: “Having Troublemaker at our disposal really gave us a great advantage in making SIN CITY. To have the ability to work outside the studio system but to also have everything you need right there really made it possible. It’s a free-flowing place where you don’t have to ask permission to make art. At one point Francis Ford Coppola came to visit, and he said this was his dream for Zoetrope – a place where you could have different artists come together to work and experiment with different kinds of projects.”
With the latest digital equipment at his disposal, Rodriguez sees Troublemaker as a kind of real world fantasyland. Rodriguez: “The thing I always loved about being a cartoonist was that anything you could imagine, you could create there on a piece of paper in your studio apartment. Now I’m doing the same thing on this larger scale, but it’s the same creative experience. Here at Troublemaker – we’re in the studio in this one green screen room, but we can instantly make it seem like you are in the snow or in the city or places right out of your dreams.”
Green Screen
For most of SIN CITY’s diverse, accomplished cast, working with the green screen was an unusual, and eye-opening, experience. They all gathered at Rodriguez’s pioneering Austin, Texas Troublemaker Studios, where the performances were pulled off in the studio’s famously intimate playground-style setting. Here, the actors brought SIN CITY to life primarily with props and minimal sets. Sometimes even their fellow actors in the scene were only there on green screen. Their most direct line of inspiration remained Miller’s drawings in the books.
Benicio Del Toro: “In the beginning, it was kind of strange, being in this environment where everything is completely in your imagination and not really there. What I did was just stop paying attention to the green and fill in all the gaps in my mind. It turned out to be really interesting to work like that. It’s very different and refreshing. And you know it is going to look great. That’s why I call Robert and Frank wizards – because they found ways between the drawings and the effects to turn water into wine.”
Clive Owen: “The first day was very unusual, because you feel as if you’re acting in a bubble of nothing. But then you get used to it very quickly. It starts to feel natural, and then you get a real sense of achievement when you realize that you’ve nailed the impact of a particular image from the book. The possibilities of this kind of filmmaking are very, very exciting.”
Jessica Alba: “The green screen can be quite liberating because it strips away all the stuff that can be very distracting in the background. It breaks all that down and it becomes just about performing. It’s almost like being on stage in the theatre. I think Robert is able to get amazing performances from people in part because he’s torn all the distractions away, and gets even closer to the character.”
Mickey Rourke: “I’ve never done a movie with a green screen before, but Robert made me feel very comfortable. I have so much respect for him, that I didn’t care if it was a green screen or a pink screen or whatever. He was so prepared and he’s such a down-toearth guy with that it all made sense to me.”
Bruce Willis: “To a large degree, you wind up relying on sense memory when you’re working with the green screen. You just had to imagine all the cool stuff that was going to be there. It could get very, very strange at times. It was particularly weird to see myself in a scene with an actress who wasn’t even there that day. It also reminded me of doing ‘Pulp Fiction’ in that you don’t really know how your part is going to intertwine with everything else until the end.”
For Carla Gugino, who worked with Robert Rodriguez on “Spy Kids” and plays Lucille in SIN CITY, the green-screen was old hat. But for her, the thrill was in watching such a talented group of adult actors become initiated. “Watching the kids work with a green screen on ‘Spy Kids’ was really interesting because kids have such vivid imaginations. I thought even that it was such a freeing thing for them, it would be truly incredible for adult actors. So on this movie, we get to see the tremendous movie-making tool that digital has become.”
The rapid-fire pace and ample flexibility of shooting with HD cameras was also welcomed by the cast. Brittany Murphy: “It’s just the greatest, most extraordinary thing to be in the middle of a scene and never have to worry about how much film is left. The camera just keeps rolling all the time which really allows for a lot of creativity. We all just loved it.”
Almost everyone involved in the production had a sense of being part of some kind of shift in the future of movie-making. Rosario Dawson: “I feel like Robert and Frank were inventing a different kind of movie and they were completely in control of a new vision. What I love is that there’s no confinement to this style of filmmaking. You’re not confined by weather, by day or night, by reality, by anything. It’s just all about making an imaginary world come to life!”
Producer Elizabeth Avellan sums up: “I think Robert is helping a lot of people overcome their fear of this new filmmaking technology. They see that it’s about moving very fast and having a lot of fun. He’s creating new converts and that’s a beautiful thing to see because Robert has always loved technology. He’s always been on the cutting edge in every way possible. For him, it’s not just about bigger and bolder – it’s about streamlining the technology, and getting the most amazing results with the least money and the maximum creativity.”
Visual EFX
After the actors filmed in front of blank backgrounds, the SIN CITY effects team painstakingly brewed up the worlds they inhabit taken straight from Miller’s books. It began with Robert Rodriguez morphing Frank Miller’s books – frame by frame, entirely as is — into animatic storyboards. He than started developing the film’s look in the early experimental footage – a look he would continue to adjust throughout production. The idea was always to blend the photo-realistic with the graphic, but the trick was in finding the balance. By finessing the lighting and photography, Rodriguez played with variations on silhouette, shadow and extreme contrasts throughout. He also decided to add a few splashes of color to the otherwise high-contrast atmosphere.
Rodriguez: “I was just salivating to recreate these really tricky images that Frank had drawn. Everything is so stripped down, that we would do as Frank did in drawing his comics. We’d build a background, but when in doubt, we’d black it out. By stripping the backgrounds to their essentials, you get an unnatural style that feels right. Since I shot in color, we’d take the color out and make it a stark black and white, but at any time in post I could bring a color back in. You could then use color as a weapon; a really strong storytelling tool. So you have a character like Goldie who pops out with real flesh tones and blonde hair or The Yellow Bastard with his mustard-colored skin. And when I wanted to heighten a character’s pain I turned the blood red, which really brings it into the foreground, almost like a color close-up. At the same time, we could temper some of the more gruesome images, by making the blood that very cartoonish white you see in the books, which keeps it from being overwhelming. It becomes very abstract.
The background environment of Sin City was forged early on by Rodriguez’s trusted crew at Troublemaker. Then, when it came time to hire an effects house, Rodriguez made an unconventional choice. Instead of one, he would hire three – one effects house for each story. This would allow each story to subtly develop its own strong, distinctive and consistent look.
Ultimately, Hybride Technologies, who were involved in Rodriguez’s SPYkids series, worked on “The Hard Goodbye,” the tale of Marv and Goldie; Café FX, whose credits include “Sky Captain” and “Blade: Trinity,” worked on “The Big Fat Kill” or Dwight’s story; and The Orphanage, known for their innovation on “Sky Captain” and “The Day After Tomorrow,” provided visual effects for “That Yellow Bastard,” featuring the tale of Hartigan and Nancy Callahan. With more than 600 effects shots per story, each house devoted itself completely to SIN CITY alone.
The film was shot with the brand new Sony HFC-950s cameras – which currently represents the leading edge in high-caliber digital imaging. The camera, also famously used by George Lucas for this summer’s “Star Wars: Episode III,” raises the bar for cinematographic versatility.
Visual Effects producer Keefe Boerner explains the appeal of the camera. “There’s simply no way you could make a movie like this on traditional film. Robert was able to constantly make changes on-the-fly, evolving the look to match performances and vice versa. You need that kind of flexibility to go this far out on the edge.”
Because he was shooting in digital hi def video, Rodriguez shot in color using HD monitors – but tweaked one of his monitors so he could see the footage unreeling in black and white. Boerner: “We had the best of both worlds. Robert was able to create what is quite possibly the best-looking black and white film ever, but when we had need for color, we had the ability for that, too.”
Each of the effects houses would have to dig deep to satisfy Rodriguez, notes Boerner: “He kept pushing each of them go further and further – to get deeper darks and bright whites. He wanted exciting effects but also for everything to remain very stark and graphic.”
At various junctures, Rodriguez even subjected his footage to the ultimate examination. He took early footage to comic book conferences and fearlessly showed it to fans to get their reactions.
Makeup
To elicit performances right out of a pulp-comic-book universe where human features are exaggerated primal emotions rule the faces and bodies of the characters also required external inspiration. This came in the form of extensive prosthetics and makeup – under the supervision of Greg Nicotero — along with costumes – designed by Nina Procter.
Greg Nicotero of KNB EFX has previously made seven movies with Robert Rodriguez, but SIN CITY was nothing like anything that came before. Nicotero had read the comic books on his own years before Rodriguez approached him. But he never imagined recreating the look of it out of real human faces.
Nicotero: “I was determined to capture the spirit of Frank’s drawings. So we used the books directly as our initial makeup designs for all the most stylized characters, including Marv, Yellow Bastard, Hartigan and Jackie Boy – and then we began to explore prosthetics.”
Miller and Rodriguez knew prosthetics would be necessary, but they wanted Nicotero to keep the array of broken noses, raised scars and square chins that populate SIN CITY as organic as possible. Rodriguez: “We wanted makeup that would be believable, that would give the story a visceral physicality, and that would look like real faces. We didn’t want the actors to appear lost behind masks.”
The first task to tackle was one of the toughest: turning Mickey Rourke into the behemoth Marv. Nicotero: “We did a scan of Mickey’s head and, using that, we then created five completely different facial prosthetics because we weren’t sure which one would work. We wanted to be faithful to Frank, but at the same time, we also needed to incorporate some of Mickey into it. After we had the prosthetics, we had to have poor Mickey sit in a chair for hours so that Frank and Robert could see the different looks. It was a trying process, but when we found the right one, it was unbelievable. Just to see Frank Miller’s face when he saw it was worth it all, because he has lived with these characters for 25 years, and he knows them so intimately, and to see him be moved by the transformation was really satisfying.”
Ultimately, Rourke had to spend 2 1/2 hours a day being fitted with a wig, a forehead-and-nose prosthetic, and a molded chin. Rourke: “The make-up artists were really into it. Once they get going, they always wanted to add more scars, more blood, more everything. I not only was sitting in the chair for up to 3 hours every day, but it took as long as 45 minutes to take the makeup off.”
Another key makeup element was creating Hartigan’s trademark scars on Bruce Willis’ familiar mug. Nicotero: “We used a unique technique involving fluorescent-activated make-up on top of Bruce’s scars so that when you see them on the screen they aren’t red with blood, but white, like in a comic book panel. It’s a great effect.”
Nicotero also enjoyed turning Benicio Del Toro into Jackie Boy. “Benicio is the first actor I can ever remember who came to me and said ‘I want to look even more like the way the character was in the book.’ Benicio already looks a lot like the character, so we built some very sophisticated prosthetics to make him even more Jackie Boy – squaring off his chin, making his nose longer. With that accomplished, he just brought the character completely to life.”
But the coup de grace for Nicotero was creating the decaying, devilish Yellow Bastard. Nicotero: “We began by sculpting a few different busts of the face – using Frank’s drawings – to work on getting the details right, from the wrinkles under his eyes to the shape and positioning of his ears and nose. Then we created a full-head prosthetic for Nick Stahl which was glued into place and covered with stubble.”
Nicotero didn’t stop with the head. His team then sculpted a whole chest and belly out of foam for Yellow Bastard’s nude scene. “We made this sort of foam latex appliance that Nick Stahl wears like a vest to recreate Yellow Bastard’s gross, distended belly.”
Adding to the complexity of Yellow Bastard was the fact that he is the only character whose very flesh appears in color. Nicotero: “His face, his hands, and ultimately his blood, had to be yellow of course. So we did test after test of different makeup to get the exact sickly, mustard color that is in Frank’s book.”
Ultimately Rodriguez decided to literally paint the Yellow Bastard blue, so that in post they could get a better key off of him and do a hue shift that would turn him yellow. For Stahl, the result was a five-hour procedure to transform into his character – including getting his prosthetics glued on and being doused in blue goo from head to toe.
Nicotero: “When Nick put on the whole rig he looked so much like the drawings in the book it was astounding.”
Sums up Frank Miller: “Somehow Greg Nicotero and his magicians were able to turn each actor into something very close to my drawings. And they were also able to let the actors somehow work right through these amazingly deformed faces so they could give them an astonishing amount of life.”
Costumes
Nina Procter, in her fifth movie with Robert Rodriguez, was faced with bringing SIN CITY further to life… in silk, cotton and leather. For the costume designer, Miller’s comic book universe provided rich inspiration. “For me, the big challenge was in trying to making the wardrobe every bit as big and bold as it is in Miller’s book. I wanted to do right by the characters and get as close to the original drawings as we could while keeping the actors happy and comfortable.”
Another challenge for Procter was using colors that would work in a largely black and white universe. “With this film, it was all about the value of color rather than the colors themselves. In order to make it look great once the effects were added, I had to look at every single costume through a black and white viewfinder. We also did a lot of highcontrast things to heighten the style — like silver studs on black leather.”
Frank Miller was intrigued to see pen-and-ink ideas become actual fabric: “Nina and her crew worked magic. They researched the costumes that I drew, but it’s one thing to draw something with a brush on a flat piece of paper and another thing to take a real flesh and blood woman or man and make them look like that. So the costumes became a very key element in having my drawings come to life.”
Procter got a kick out of working with the trademark staples of noir – trench coats, dusters, fishnet stockings and garters – and then some. Her thoughts on some of the character’s costumes follow below.
On Marv: “Marv has three different trench coats that change throughout the story. His first coat, which is his own coat, is a little more special. It had these massive shoulders and this skirt that would fly up almost like a Superman cape. But then that coat gets torn up and he takes another coat and then another. Mickey Rourke was a real trooper, wearing all these heavy coats that were very difficult to move in, but he really made them work.”
On Hartigan: “Bruce Willis was great to work with and he really loved his wardrobe. He literally put his trench coat on and said ‘Can I have this to take home?’ His coats were designed to be lighter weight and lighter in color than Marv’s coats to set them apart. They’re more dressy and suit his character.”
On Dwight: “We wanted to ‘cowboy’ him up a little, so he’s in brown tones and wears this great duster that has an outlaw feel to it.”
On Gail: “Gail was a very fun character. She is literally all belts and fishnet, but we were able to construct her very revealing outfits in such a way that Rosario felt entirely comfortable. There’s really no nudity involved but we give the character a strong sense of nudity – I mean she has shoes that come up to the top of her leg, literally.”
Then there came Nina Procter’s favorite re-creation: Nancy. “Nancy was my biggest challenge. She is the one pure, angelic person in the whole movie and we wanted her costume to be very sexy – yet without going too far. She has to wear chaps, work ropes and spin guns in her routine and I wanted Jessica Alba to be completely comfortable about her costume so she wouldn’t have to think about it. In the end, I think she looks like as close to an angel as anything you’ll find in SIN CITY.”
Sin City: A Visit from Quentin Tarantino
In an unusual twist, the production of SIN CITY received a visit from another director who is no stranger to pulp territory. Quentin Tarantino (“Kill Bill,” “Jackie Brown,” “Pulp Fiction”) came to the set at Robert Rodriguez’s invitation – and was paid one dollar to shoot an extended sequence in the story “The Big Fat Kill.”
Tarantino and Rodriguez have previously worked together on such films as “Desperado,” “Four Rooms” and “From Dusk Til Dawn.” Most recently, Rodriguez composed music for Tarantino’s “Kill Bill 2” – also for the price of a dollar. But there has long been a difference of opinion between the two on whether the future of cinema lies in film or digital video. To score a point on his side, Rodriguez showed Quentin some of the experiments he had shot early on for SIN CITY.
Tarantino: “It was my first view of what this world was like and I thought ‘oh my God’ they’re actually doing the cityscapes and the silhouettes which I just love and all the lighting, and the camera angles – everything. I was interested.”
With Tarantino awed, Rodriguez made his pitch for Quentin to spend a day as “guest director.” “I knew Quentin would respond to the material and I thought it would be a great chance for him to come down to Troublemaker Studios and see how it is to work with actors in a digital realm. Plus I shoot very fast, so having him there a day was really like having him there a week. We got so much done.”
Frank Miller also thought it would be cool. Miller: “It was fascinating working with Quentin because he has such a different style from Robert. All three of us share a pop culture sensibility and a macabre sense of humor so it was a good match. We were like three kids in a tree fort having a ball.”
Ultimately, Tarantino directed the sequence from “Big Fat Kill” in which Dwight and Jackie Boy drive through the rain with Dwight convinced that the dead Jackie Boy is talking to him. Tarantino was given free reign. Rodriguez: “We really wanted Quentin’s stamp on the scene. I knew he would deliver something distinct, and he came so prepared, it made Frank and I look like bums. He had his whole shot list plotted out, an idea for a unique look, and even had Clive Owen say his voice over out loud during the scene. (Clive had to step off set for 5 minutes to memorize his monologue, something he wasn’t expecting to record until much later. He impressed Quentin by stepping back on set and saying, “I think I got it.” Clive nailed it.”)
For the actors, the sudden directorial switchover was intriguing. Benicio Del Toro: “I think Robert and Quentin are two of the most interesting filmmakers on the planet right now and for Clive and I suddenly to be sitting there in front of both of them was pretty amazing. It could have been a recipe for chaos but it worked extremely well.”
Clive Owen: “To be told that another director was coming in just to do one scene was very unusual. But then when I saw Quentin, Robert and Frank together it all made sense. They were all trying to achieve the same thing in their own way and it felt very organic and natural.”
Meanwhile, Tarantino admits he can see the merits of digital. “Robert couldn’t have picked a scene that better illustrated the uses of digital filmmaking. You have this rain pouring down on the car, you have a ton of water hitting the car, and you want to have every water drop illuminated, just the way it’s drawn. I realized if I was shooting this on film, it would take forever to get that going, and the sounds would have been ruined. But instead of being stuck with capturing everything perfectly, it became entirely about the delivery and the performance. That was a lot of fun.”
But despite the success of their collaboration on SIN CITY, Rodriguez is setting his sights higher for their next meeting. “The next thing we do together, the price doubles,” he proclaims. “It’ll be a two dollar bill after this.”
These production notes provided by Dimension Films.
Sin City
Starring: Mickey Rourke, Bruce Willis, Benicio Del Toro, Clive Owen, Jaime King, Rosario Dawson, Brittany Murphy
Directed by: Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller
Screenplay: R.Rodriguez, F. Miller
Release Date: April 1st, 2005
MPAA Rating: R for sustained strong stylized violence, nudity and sexual content.
Studio: Dimension Films
Box Office Totals
Domestic: $74,103,820 (46.7%)
Foreign: $84,650,000 (53.3%)
Total: $158,753,820 (Worldwide)