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Here's an interesting bit of casting news:

From SuperHeroHype.com:

Hauer is Cardinal Roark in Sin City
Source: Lobster Charlie
December 15, 2004
http://superherohype.com/news/sincitynews.php?id=2340

Scooper 'Lobster Charlie' saw the following note from Rutger Hauer on his official website, in which the actor reveals he's been cast as Cardinal Roark in "The Hard Goodbye" for Robert Rodriguez's Sin City.

Well,things happenned rapidly the last few days.While opening mail and relaxing something popped out of the pressurecooker.SIN CITY is a black and white cartoon which is being made into a feature in Texas.Could i come and do a wacky hysterical cardinal for them.

Well good luck to him. Poor Rutger hasn't had the best of careers lately.

The Invunche wrote:Well good luck to him. Poor Rutger hasn't had the best of careers lately.

No, but he's also slated to appear in Batman Begins. He's on the road to recovery!

He's not the world's greatest actor, but I always liked him and it's just sad to see some of the productions he's been involved with.

The Invunche wrote:He's not the world's greatest actor, but I always liked him and it's just sad to see some of the productions he's been involved with.

His performance in The Hitcher still gives me goosebumps. He played a nasty mofo in that one....

The Invunche wrote:He's not the world's greatest actor, but I always liked him and it's just sad to see some of the productions he's been involved with.

Actually, I think he is a terrific actor. Unfortunately, most of his greatest turns have been lost to time. His work for Paul Verhoeven (back when he was great), Richard Donner, Ridley Scott and others stood out as some of the best lead performances for films of their kind in the early-to-mid 80's. After a while his age brought down his commercial potential and he was typecast as a genre actor, doomed to a downward spiral of increasingly cheaper and poor productions. Seeing him reduced to the small part in Turbulance 3: Heavy Metal is one of the saddest things I've ever seen in direct-to-video hell, and I am not exaggerating my opinion on that.

Speaking plainly, I've heard from a couple of people who've worked with him that Rutger's a bit of a drunk and an arrogant asshole: the combination of these two things has meant that his career choices haven't been the best.

He's always been prone to taking the easy money, hence his descent to status of Straight-To-Video King. And now he's gotten too fat to even carry those roles off convincingly, so where does that leave him?

two mules wrote:Speaking plainly, I've heard from a couple of people who've worked with him that Rutger's a bit of a drunk and an arrogant asshole: the combination of these two things has meant that his career choices haven't been the best.

I don't doubt what you've heard, which is a shame. Same thing happened to a lot of actors (and actresses) whose ability to find work was nowhere near as consistent as his.

He's always been prone to taking the easy money, hence his descent to status of Straight-To-Video King. And now he's gotten too fat to even carry those roles off convincingly, so where does that leave him?

Too old and fat to keep up his old habits maybe? I dunno, he's the one in $30 to $100 million dollar projects all of a sudden. He would have had to get his act together somewhat for an agent to risk their neck in setting up those kinds of gigs.

DrewReiber wrote:Too old and fat to keep up his old habits maybe? I dunno, he's the one in $30 to $100 million dollar projects all of a sudden. He would have had to get his act together somewhat for an agent to risk their neck in setting up those kinds of gigs.

I'm glad he's getting these roles in big movies, but it's not really a terribly risky business. There's always window-dressing roles for distinctive-looking guys [Armageddon's on TV as I write, and it's got Peter Stormare, Udo Kier etc etc in it] who don't have to do much, aren't a liability, and make the movie look better. Hope Hauer manages to carve himself a niche there, rather than return to the video ghetto

I didn't mean any disrespect to his acting ability, though. He's got a great, intense persona, and he's always compelling to watch.

I'm curious how episodic this film will turn out to be. It combines four different stories that are not necessarily connected (they are not really in a chronological order in the comics). I wonder if Rodriguez will do as his pal did in Pulp Fiction and slice and dice the stories together... especially since they all feature Mickey Rourke and Bruce Willis and Jessica Alba's characters somewhere. It would be "interesting" to see Willis being beaten in one scene and then drinking in a bar without a scratch in the next, only slowly to realize the lack of chronology.
But that would be taking straight from Tarantino, or paying "homage." If they are told as four separate episodes with only titles between them I'd bet that people (audience and critics) would fault the film for not weaving a unifying story. And, although we have to wait 3+ months (in the states) to see it, I'm still curious: What will Rodriguez (and Miller, I suppose) do?

http://progressive.stream.aol.com/aol/u ... _01_dl.mov

trailer
found on aintitcoolnews.com

well, doesnt answer my earlier question at all, and Mickey Rourke looks freaky-deaky but *Im excited!* 3+ months

I gotta add, I liked Elijah Wood's glasses effect but I have no idea who his character is from the comics. And we needed some more Miho action (though the double swords will have to last till april).

milk114 wrote:I'm curious how episodic this film will turn out to be. It combines four different stories that are not necessarily connected (they are not really in a chronological order in the comics). I wonder if Rodriguez will do as his pal did in Pulp Fiction and slice and dice the stories together... especially since they all feature Mickey Rourke and Bruce Willis and Jessica Alba's characters somewhere. It would be "interesting" to see Willis being beaten in one scene and then drinking in a bar without a scratch in the next, only slowly to realize the lack of chronology.

But that would be taking straight from Tarantino, or paying "homage." If they are told as four separate episodes with only titles between them I'd bet that people (audience and critics) would fault the film for not weaving a unifying story. And, although we have to wait 3+ months (in the states) to see it, I'm still curious: What will Rodriguez (and Miller, I suppose) do?

I gotta add, I liked Elijah Wood's glasses effect but I have no idea who his character is from the comics. And we needed some more Miho action (though the double swords will have to last till april).

Wood plays Kevin, the nasty enforcer who makes Marv's life hell in the first Sin City story. I have to say, what little footage of him they showed, looks pretty good. In fact, everyone looks very close to their respective characters.

As for how Rodriguez is going to interweave all these stories. Well, he could do it like Tarantino in Pulp Fiction but I think it would be smarter for him just to do it chronologically and link some of the characters/stories by having characters show up in the background of bars/night clubs that everyone in that world frequents. It wouldn't be too hard.

I have read that Rodriguez has shot full versions of each of the four stories as they play out in the comic books and will include them on the DVD but obviously edit them down for the movie.

Here is another link to two different ways to view the new teaser trailer:

http://www.themoviebox.net/movies/2005/ ... railer.php

I have to say this new teaser looks much more polished than the rough footage of the bootleg trailer that went up months ago. Looks very good and again, it is amazing how close Rodriguez has gotten his movie to look like Miller's comic.

Fletch F. Fletch wrote:Looks very good and again, it is amazing how close Rodriguez has gotten his movie to look like Miller's comic.

I pray that Rodriguez's $30 million dollar blank check contract remains at Dimension once the Weinsteins depart, so we can see more Sin City and Madman... or heck, anything Rodriguez wants to do.

DrewReiber wrote:

Fletch F. Fletch wrote:Looks very good and again, it is amazing how close Rodriguez has gotten his movie to look like Miller's comic.

I pray that Rodriguez's $30 million dollar blank check contract remains at Dimension once the Weinsteins depart, so we can see more Sin City and Madman... or heck, anything Rodriguez wants to do.

from an extensive quentin tarantino interview with the brothers weinstein:

aint it cool wrote:So I don’t think we’re gonna stop making films or being the kind of film company that we are. And people like Quentin and Roberto Rodriguez, no matter what happens they’re coming with us. So that’s our way of saying we hope this gets itself resolved in a good way.

bah-humbug?

-igor s.

igor s. wrote:bah-humbug?

My heart just sunk deeper into my chest. This really, really, really, really, infinitely really sucks. I could care less about Tarantino, but I've watched the Sin City trailer like 6 times in the last two days, Once Upon a Time twice in the last five days and just lent El Mariachi to a friend of mine while I was out of town.

Rodriguez is one of the few people left in this industry who does everything himself, consistently comes in under budget, can pump anything you need for a film out in no time flat (Once Upon a Time, Kill Bill vol. 2 score, Sin City test footage), and he's so serious about his art that he lost out on major studio jobs (John Carter of Mars) over his DGA standing just so the creators of the comic projects he wants to work could do it with him.

I guess this is good for the Weinsteins, seeing as how they have treated guys like Smith, Rodriguez and Tarantino with loyalty, and thus are getting it back in spades. However, I really don't think Harvey (and especially Bob) are the best people to be running an operation on Miramax's scale any longer. It's not like it's up to me, but I was happy with this turn of events until now. Bah humbug!

drewreiber wrote:Rodriguez is one of the few people left in this industry who does everything himself, consistently comes in under budget, can pump anything you need for a film out in no time flat (Once Upon a Time, Kill Bill vol. 2 score, Sin City test footage), and he's so serious about his art that he lost out on major studio jobs (John Carter of Mars) over his DGA standing just so the creators of the comic projects he wants to work could do it with him.

has chance come upon you to look-see rodriguez's early diary, Rebel Without a Crew: Or How a 23-Year-Old Filmmaker With $7,000 Became a Hollywood Player; it's quite a fun breeze read. in pages 3 and 4 (of this edition) rodriguez remarks particularly toward your comment: of the origins of this zealous independence and its rationale.

best,

-igor s.

igor s. wrote:has chance come upon you to look-see rodriguez's early diary,

Not yet, but I should. I hear he talks about his George Miller influences. Did he mention George Romero or John Carpenter at all?

You know, Columbia/Tri-Star likes him a lot... maybe they'll pick him up? I think Rodriguez's next kids movie is still moving ahead before the September 2005 expiration date for the Weinstein's contract, and I know he's waiting for Depp to finish his Pirate duties for Madman, so there is time for him (or the Weinsteins) to be rescued before he's affected (I HOPE).

DrewReiber wrote:I hear he talks about his George Miller influences. Did he mention George Romero or John Carpenter at all?.

to answer the posed question, without referencing the text, here's an actual interview taken 'round the production time for [i[from dusk til dawn[/i] in moviemaker magazine, where rodriguez attests the mad max influences on the creation of el mariachi, and so much more:

The Reformation of a Rebel Without a Crew

best,

-igor s.

igor s. wrote:here's an actual interview taken 'round the production time for [i[from dusk til dawn[/i] in moviemaker magazine, where rodriguez attests the mad max influences on the creation of el mariachi, and so much more

Thank you sir, much appreciated. Frickin' heck, getting sleepy and I just need to make a few more hours before this cruise... errr... fight... sleep...

I wonder if the sci-fi script he referenced was that Predator 3 script he says he did as a gag.

drewreiber wrote:I wonder if the sci-fi script he referenced was that Predator 3 script he says he did as a gag.

never heard of that one, however, i suspect the mentioned sci-fi project most probably refers to edgar rice burroughs' princess of mars. some time but not so long ago, aint it cool had an extensive report on this development:

The trades are running the story today [2nd march, 2004] about Robert signing his deal to direct this film [princess of mars] as soon as he's finished with SIN CITY, but so far, as best as I can tell, they've only got some of the story.

drewreiber wrote:Thank you sir, much appreciated. Frickin' heck, getting sleepy and I just need to make a few more hours before this cruise... errr... fight... sleep...

friend, i feel your pain and pleasure, for i too am awaiting adventure and i too am awaiting this adventure on no sleep. let's hope for our best.

-igor s.

igor s. wrote:

drewreiber wrote:I wonder if the sci-fi script he referenced was that Predator 3 script he says he did as a gag.

never heard of that one, however, i suspect the mentioned sci-fi project most probably refers to edgar rice burroughs' princess of mars. some time but not so long ago, aint it cool had an extensive report on this development:

The trades are running the story today [2nd march, 2004] about Robert signing his deal to direct this film [princess of mars] as soon as he's finished with SIN CITY, but so far, as best as I can tell, they've only got some of the story.

Actually, Rodriguez is off of the Princess of Mars film and Kerry Conran (of Sky Captain fame) is on board to direct and deep in pre-production. I believe he's even gone to visit Burroughs' people and showed them his vision of the film. For more info, go here:

http://www.erbzine.com/mag11/1136.html

Here are some promo pics that appear in an upcoming issue of Entertainment Weekly:

http://superherohype.com/news/sincitynews.php?id=2584

I officially don't get this movie. You cast Jessica Alba as a stripper and she doesn't get naked?

The Invunche wrote:I officially don't get this movie. You cast Jessica Alba as a stripper and she doesn't get naked?

I know, it kinda defeats the purpose of faithfully adapting Miller's comic book. It makes me wonder what rating they're shooting for on this one. If it's a PG-13 rating then that would really suck. Let's hope Rodriguez and Miller are going for an R.