Comic-Con: Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For Panel Live Blog

Dimension Films is presenting exclusive footage from the upcoming Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For at the San Diego Comic-Con at 2:50 p.m. Pacific Time today. Fans will get to experience the Sin City universe and take part in a special discussion with Robert Rodriguez, Frank Miller and the cast.

You can read the archived version of our live blog below:

2:41

ComingSoon.net: Welcome to our live blog of the San Diego Comic-Con panel for Frank Miller’s Sin City: A Dame to Kill For. The panel should be starting soon, so stay tuned.

2:58

Comment From Guest

is this working?

2:59

ComingSoon.net: Yep, just waiting for the panel to start.

3:06

ComingSoon.net: Sorry guys, writers coming online now. Panel is underway.

3:09

Joshua Starnes: Sorry for the delay, but they just finished showing the opening minutes of Just Another Saturday Night

3:09

Joshua Starnes: The cast is making its way onto the stage: Rosario Dawson, Josh Brolin, Jessica Alba

3:09

Joshua Starnes: Jessica Alba gets the biggest applause by far

3:10

Joshua Starnes: Miller: “After writing screenplays I wanted to write a story that couldn’t be turned into a screenplay . . . and then this crazy texan came along and did it.”

3:11

Joshua Starnes: Frank looking like a scarecrow up there, quite different from the last time he was here.

3:11

Joshua Starnes: Brolin: They’re two iconoclasts, not going according to any bodies drum

3:14

Joshua Starnes: Brolin: Metropolis it is not

3:17

Silas Lesnick: Sorry, Josh is having some technical difficulties. Jumping on now!

3:17

Silas Lesnick: Rodriguez is talking about his cast, which is packed with appearances

3:18

Joshua Starnes: Stacy Keach!! Christopher Lloyd!!

3:18

Joshua Starnes: Eva Green!

3:18

Silas Lesnick: Rodriguez says that what surprised him the most was how well everyone works on green screen these day

3:18

Silas Lesnick: He says that the performances are ten times better this time around

3:19

Silas Lesnick: Because actors are more used to the technology these days

3:19

Joshua Starnes: First post didn’t make it through but Brolin was saying there was no way to naturalize Roodriguez dialogue, you just have to go with it

3:19

Silas Lesnick: Brolin and Rourke never actually met because of scheduling problems

3:19

Joshua Starnes: Neither Brolin or Rourke actually filmed scenes together

3:20

Silas Lesnick: Brolin says that you’ll never know that they didn’t shoot together

3:21

Silas Lesnick: He says you have to put a lot of faith in the directors, because it feels so alien acting against a green screen

3:21

Silas Lesnick: But he was thrilled at the final result, because you get to watch a film that you never actually experienced in the acting

3:22

Silas Lesnick: BIG applause at the mention of Miller’s Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One

3:23

Silas Lesnick: Miller was just asked how it compares to create characters versus working with existing characters like Batman

3:23

Silas Lesnick: He says he’s very protective of his original characters

3:23

Comment From Rafael

any comment about the new segment creadted exclusively for the sequel?

3:24

Silas Lesnick: No details on it yet, but they did mention that one of the major sequences is brand new, written specifically for the film by Miller

3:25

Silas Lesnick: Dawson’s people told Rodriguez she couldn’t shave her head this time

3:25

Silas Lesnick: But on the first day, she walked in, having shaved her head

3:25

Silas Lesnick: “I didn’t want people to think I wasn’t going to bring it,” she told Rodriguez

3:26

Silas Lesnick: Alba showed up on set deep in character

3:26

Silas Lesnick: “My first thought when I said hello to Jessica was, ‘I haven’t seen her in eight years. How did I piss her off?” says Miller

3:26

Joshua Starnes: I think at this point Alba has done more Rodriguez movies than Salma Hayek – she’s the new muse.

3:26

Silas Lesnick: Alba say she connected with Nancy’s dark side and it was hard to break out of it

3:27

Comment From selah

Did bruce willis survive the previous film?

3:27

Silas Lesnick: These stories don’t necessarily happen in order, so all bets are off for characters returning

3:27

Joshua Starnes: Has it really been a decade since the first Sin City?

3:27

Joshua Starnes: I am old.

3:28

Silas Lesnick: “When you see what she becomes by the end of this,” says Rodriguez of Nancy’s arc, “you’ll be pretty blown away.”

3:28

Silas Lesnick: Alba says Power Booth is really, really intimidating, even as they were shooting

3:29

Silas Lesnick: Rodriguez was really excited to bring in Joseph Gordon-Levitt

3:29

Silas Lesnick: Rodriguez just said “new stories” plural, so we might be in for some additional surprises in the final film

3:30

Silas Lesnick: Sometimes Miller would do storyboards for the new stories live on the set

3:30

Silas Lesnick: Miller is talking about one particular shot he drew of Nancy

3:30

Silas Lesnick: He looked over at Alba on stage and was shocked to see that she was already in the pose he was drawing

3:31

Silas Lesnick: Miller was so shocked because it was an “impossible pose” and asked Alba how she did it

3:31

Silas Lesnick: “It’s what you drew,” she told him

3:32

Silas Lesnick: Rodriguez did the score again, which was a real delight for him

3:32

Silas Lesnick: He’s amazed with cell phone tech these days. He would often wake up in the middle of the night and just hum bit of the score

3:32

Silas Lesnick: “80 percent of the score was written on my phone,” he says

3:33

Silas Lesnick: “So you really phoned in the score?” Miller kids.

3:34

Silas Lesnick: Sometimes Miller would come up with a shot and only get out a few lines before Rodriguez had already got the shot

3:34

Silas Lesnick: Miller and Rodriguez developed a deep understanding of how one another worked artistically

3:34

Silas Lesnick: Here come audience questions…

3:35

Silas Lesnick: The first question is for Miller about how demanding he is about adaptations like SIN CITY and 300 and how exact they are to his original books

3:35

Silas Lesnick: He says it was never a question because both Snyder and Rodriguez proved they had a deep understanding of the respective material

3:37

Silas Lesnick: The next guy asking a question is wearing a hand-painted SIN CITY jacket

3:38

Silas Lesnick: He’s asking about the origins of Hartigan’s name

3:38

Silas Lesnick: Apparently it’s a childhood friend of his brother’s.

3:38

Silas Lesnick: “I have a lot of brothers,” says Miller, “Almost as many as [Robert] has kids.”

3:40

Silas Lesnick: Brolin says he feels like a fraud because he was able to just show up and act when most of his co-stars went seriously in-depth for their roles.

3:41

Silas Lesnick: Miller says that the lack of connection actually increased the energy between actors.

3:41

Silas Lesnick: A big part of getting the scene right is getting the actors to trust themselves, says Rodriguez

3:41

Silas Lesnick: He set up a painting studio in the back of Troublemaker Studios and have them paint their character before doing the scene

3:42

Silas Lesnick: Rourke would play Johnny Cash’s cover of “Hurt” over and over during production on the first film to get into the character of Marv.

3:42

Silas Lesnick: The paintings are going to be released for the public soon

3:43

Silas Lesnick: Miller names a scene from the first film between Clive Owen and Dawson that he feels is particularly strong — a kiss in the rain.

3:43

Silas Lesnick: He says that NOT having rain let the actors focus on their connection only and made the emotions stronger

3:44

Silas Lesnick: Another fan just asked about a potential RONIN film

3:44

Silas Lesnick: “Robert and I are already talking about SIN CITY 3,” says Miller

3:44

Silas Lesnick: “You better show up for number two, or they won’t pay for it!” he adds

3:45

Silas Lesnick: “Will there be more SIN CITY graphic novels?” a fan asks.

3:45

Silas Lesnick: “Inevitably,” says Miller. He says he has a stack of stories he wants to do. He’s not sure when he’ll get to them, though.

3:46

Silas Lesnick: Another fan wants a Martha Washington movie!

3:47

Silas Lesnick: “I think it will happen,” says Miller. “In some way. But on that one I’m going to be a prick. It’s gotta be done my way.”

3:47

Comment From Ryan

Anyone ask what happened to Clive Owen/if he’ll appear in the last act?

3:47

Silas Lesnick: Brolin is playing the same character as Owen did. As in the comics, he gets plastic surgery between the stories.

3:49

Silas Lesnick: They’re about to show something. Be right back!

3:52

Silas Lesnick: They just showed an extended trailer set to Nicki Minaj’s “Babes,” which is one of the songs Nancy dances to in the new film.

3:53

Silas Lesnick: The Nancy story appears to be the new one and is set after the events of the first film.

3:53

Silas Lesnick: Willis looks like he appears as a ghost, but interacts with Nancy, asking her not to avenge him.

3:54

Silas Lesnick: Miller ends the panel with, “I’ll be damned if it takes us nine years for the next one!”

3:54

Silas Lesnick: Thanks for reading everyone!