EXCLUSIVE: Frank Miller Talks Sin City 2 & the Upcoming Sin City DVD

Today MovieWeb had the privilege of sitting down with Sin City creator, Frank Miller. With the DVD of this groundbreaking film set to hit stores on August 16th, we talked about that upcoming release, Sin City 2, other projects he is working on and how his characters “bug” him into existence.

What can we expect from the upcoming Sin City DVD?

Frank Miller: Well, the one coming out Tuesday has got some extra features. It includes interviews with us. The one that’s coming out in December is going to be Rodriguezes re-creation, where he and I are going to restore a lot of scenes that we cut. So you’ll be able to see each story as a seperate entity. It being full flesh. It’s gonna be way cool.

As it’s coming out in 4 different covers, I was wondering how much you had to do with that? In terms of what goes on the covers?

Frank Miller: The only part I had to do with that was when I was directing the still photography, because the pictures derived from when we were doing the still photography. As far as what Miramax has done and what Robert has put together, I sit back and learn. I mean four different covers, my goodness!

What’s it like working with Robert Rodriguez and having him be such a big champion of your work?

Frank Miller: It sure as hell is not depressing. It’s like here I’m my 40s, and I discovered a brother I didn’t know about.

Oh wow...

Frank Miller: I’d do anything for him.

How did you two end up coming together? Did he come to you about all this?

Frank Miller: He hunted me down like a wild dog.

Laughter.

Frank Miller: He called my attorney, he called my editors, and one of my editors called up and was like ‘Frank, this guy..., you really, really have to take this meeting.’ And I said, ‘I don’t work in movies anymore.’ ‘No, no, this guy is someone... you gotta meet him. Just to meet him.’ And I met him in a Hell’s Kitchen saloon. And, as far as I could tell, he was the only straight guy in Hell’s Kitchen that wore a cowboy hat.

We both laugh.

Frank Miller: And he and I hung out and I really liked him. I loved what he showed me as far as test shots and so on. And then I turned him down. I said, ‘I’m sorry, this is my baby. You’re a really nice guy. I know you mean to do this thing right. I know you’re sincere about that. But every time I’ve worked on a movie, it’s been turned inside out at the last minute by the studio or something. Something’s gonna go wrong and I can’t live with that with Sin City. Cuz Sin City is my daughter.’ And I said, ‘I just can’t whore her out.’ He just kept at it and then he said, ‘Hey, you know man, how about I fly you out and we’ll do a test? Just a test with a couple of friends of mine. And then if you don’t like it, we’ll have a cool DVD that we’ll show to our friends, but we won’t do the movie. And it’s all on my nickle.’ He bankrolled a day of shooting. How do I turn that down? So I went out there. And I walked in and I saw his two friends... Marley Shelton and Josh Hartnett. And in 10 hours we shot the opening sequence for Sin City. And as he knew would happen, there was beautiful Marley coming over and asking me questions about character. And I just started telling her her entire backstory. And I realized, ‘Oh my God, he was right.’ And at the end of the day I said, ‘When do we start casting?’ And we’ve been partners ever since.

What stage is Sin City 2 at?

Frank Miller: The script isn’t quite done. I’m working on a new story that I’m going to weave into the main story. The main story is my book “A Dame to Kill For” and I’m weaving a new Nancy Callahan story into it... but we’re planning on shooting in January.

Can you give us any hints about what we can expect from that?

Frank Miller: Way too early, man. Way too early. It wouldn’t be fair to the movie and goodness knows at this point it probably wouldn’t be accurate.

How do you go about creating the characters that inhabit the Frank Miller world?

Frank Miller: They introduce themselves to me. I tell yah, I don’t know how else to explain it.

It’s just kind of an organic process? You sit down and they just kind of come out of you?

Frank Miller: No, they bug me. They bug me. I dream about them. I walk around and one of them will be in my head. It usually starts when I do a drawing. Sometimes it’s just on a napkin somewhere. Other times it’s a proper drawing on my board. And then if it’s like it is with any creative act, then it’s a matter of simply falling in love.

Are you working on anything else now aside from Sin City?

Frank Miller: I am currently writing an ongoing series that Jim Lee is drawing called “Batman and Robin The Boy Wonder.” Which is all about the evolution of little Dick Grayson becoming Robin. And also, I’m 120 pages into illustrating a Batman graphic novel that’s called “Holy Terror Batman.” And it’s essentially Batman versus Al qaeda.

Frank Miller starts laughing.

Frank Miller: Good catch, I know.

Sin City comes to DVD with 4 different covers August 16th, 2005.