William Monahan hasn’t necessarily blown the doors off since winning the Oscar for The Departed back in 2007. I was one of the few that enjoyed Body of Lies, Edge of Darkness was a bust and his directorial debut, London Boulevard has yet to hit theaters stateside despite a cast that includes Colin Farrell and Keira Knightley. So excuse me if I don’t get too excited when I learn Monahan has been hired to work on the script for Sin City 2, apparently supplementing a draft previously completed by the source material’s author, Frank Miller.
Sin City 2 will be directed by Robert Rodriguez, who filmed the first adaptation of Miller’s graphic novel and while at Comic Con earlier this year told the audience, “There is a scenario where Frank [Miller] has written a script for Sin City 2. 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.”
None of this is new and I’ve been writing about a potential Sin City sequel since the first one came out back in 2005 when Rodriguez said, “We’d always thought ‘Dame to Kill For’ was the story (for the sequel)… It has all the characters; Mickey [Rourke]’s in it, Clive [Owen] is in it, so it would be great to bring everybody back.”
As far as who exactly would be back for the sequel out of the original cast, which included Bruce Willis, Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Jaime King, Elijah Wood, Josh Hartnett, Carla Gugino, Marley Shelton, Nick Stahl, Benicio del Toro, Clive Owen, Rosario Dawson, Michael Clarke Duncan, Devon Aoki, Michael Madsen, Alexis Bledel and Makenzie Vega is unknown. Considering the film is shot 100% on green screen to give it that graphic novel look, Rodriguez is confident he can get everyone back because they don’t even need to be in the same room together to shoot each scene.
As for Monahan, his next adaptation is Horizons, which will be directed by Joseph Kosinski (TRON: Legacy) and will star Tom Cruise and, as you read last week, is looking for a female lead.
He was also just attached to write a remake of The Gambler for something of a Departed reunion with Martin Scorsese attached to direct and Leonardo DiCaprio attached to star. The 1974 original starred James Caan as an academic whose gambling addiction begins to get the best of him. The film’s original screenwriter, James Toback, however, is none-too-happy to learn about the remake. Especially considering no one ever asked him or even mentioned it to him. Of course, Toback being unhappy is more of a fly in the room when it comes to something like this, but it is something to consider.
Everything said, when it comes to Sin City 2 I can’t say I’m all that excited. I do enjoy the first film even though it sputters every now and then, but that Blu-ray release two years ago was quite snazzy. You tell me, does a Sin City sequel interest you or has the moment passed?
