Hasitha Fernando looks at the story behind Sin City as it turns 20…
In present day Hollywood, shooting films in digital backlots has become something of a commonplace occurrence. But two decades prior it was viewed by the industry as the ground-breaking next step in VFX driven visual storytelling. In this context, we take a look at a movie which pioneered the aforementioned methodology of filmmaking and delivered a visually awe-inspiring, brutally violent, neo-noir crime drama for the ages. This is the behind-the-scenes story of Sin City…
Sin City was based on one of Frank Miller’s critically lauded comics
Sin City was a series of neo-noir comics created by writer cum artist Frank Miller. Miller of course requires no introduction, having churned out such critically acclaimed comic book stories and graphic novels as The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Year One, Daredevil: Born Again and 300 throughout the past few decades. The first Sin City story appeared in the Dark Horse Presents Fifth Anniversary special published in April 1991 and continued its run serialized in thirteen parts under the title of Sin City from May 1991 to June 1992.
Miller was inspired by classic film noir efforts headlined by the likes of Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney where narratives were populated by morally ambiguous heroes and nefarious scoundrels. The feature film adaptation of the property was based on the graphic novels “The Hard Goodbye”, “The Big Fat Kill”, and “That Yellow Bastard”. The opening sequence which featured Josh Hartnett and Marley Shelton was based on the short story “The Customer is Always Right”. The epilogue, however, was an original scene specifically written for the film.
The Weinsteins played an important role in getting the movie made
Although Sin City was a famous comic it was also somewhat of a bizarre one with its neo-noir aesthetic, dark humor, bleak story and brutal violence. Therefore, it was abundantly clear from the get-go that no major studio wanted to be part of the venture due to its inherently risky nature and this is where Robert Rodriguez’s relationship with Miramax Films came into play.
Over the years Rodriguez had forged a great working relationship with Miramax through such profitable efforts as From Dusk Till Dawn, The Faculty and Once Upon a Time in Mexico. And through this the filmmaker was able to reach out to Miramax Films honchos the Weinsteins to make the production of this flick a reality. Much of the movie’s effects and scoring was also done in Rodriguez’s own studio located across the street from his house.
The opening sequence was filmed before Frank Miller gave his seal of approval
Robert Rodriguez shot the opening sequence of the movie prior to receiving the seal of approval from Sin City creator Frank Miller. Josh Hartnett and Marley Shelton were picked by Rodriguez himself to act out the scenes that took place on a rooftop. The primary objective of filming this particular scene beforehand was to show Miller that comic book could be successfully translated into live-action whilst retaining its distinct style and mood. Suffice to say, Rodriguez’s effort paid off and Frank Miller joined the project as a co-director.
The panels from the original comics were used as storyboards
Along with Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Casshern and Immortal, Sin City was one of the very first movies to be shot on a completely digital backlot. Which meant all the live-action performances featured in the film were shot in front of a greenscreen and the backgrounds added later in postproduction. Both Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller sought to recreate the exact look and feel of the Sin City comics and therefore, used comic book panels from the source material as storyboards when shooting their movie. Because of this Rodriguez always saw the live-action adaptation as more of a translation than an adaptation, which is why there are no screenwriting credits in the effort.
Bruce Willis opted to wear prosthetics to better resemble his comic book character
Bruce Willis is a Hollywood action icon. A legend. And the involvement of the 80s action star in a comic book film shot in a digital backlot certainly would have raised eyebrows at the time. But Willis was certainly committed to his role of playing the gruff police detective John Hartigan. So much so that Willis wore prosthetics to better resemble his comic book counterpart and even became right-handed in spite of being a leftie, since Hartigan was right-handed in the comics. Other cast members who also wore extra layers of makeup include Benicio Del Toro, Mickey Rourke and Nick Stahl.
Benicio del Toro was cast as Jackie Boy because of his ‘Wolfman’ hair
Originally, director Robert Rodriguez envisioned Johnny Depp, whom he worked with on Once Upon a Time in Mexico, to play Jackie Boy in Sin City. However, due to scheduling conflicts Depp was unable to appear in the movie and this complicated things for the filmmaker. However, in a queer quirk of fate Rodriguez saw veteran character actor Benicio del Toro with his “wolfman” hair at the Academy Awards ceremony and immediately decided that it was del Toro that he wanted for the role. The filmmaker then humbly requested actor not to cut his hair and sent him a copy of the “The Customer Is Always Right” short story for his perusal, upon which del Toro signed on immediately. Before del Toro, Academy Award winner Adrien Brody briefly showed interest in the role.
Michael Madsen directly approached Robert Rodriguez for a role in the movie
A regular collaborator of Quentin Tarantino, Michael Madsen has made a career of playing memorable baddies in numerous films since the late 80s and some of the seasoned performer’s top movies include Reservoir Dogs, Donnie Brasco and Thelma & Louise. As per Latino Review during the wrap party of Kill Bill: Volume 2, which Robert Rodriguez scored alongside RZA, Madsen directly approached the filmmaker and asked him as to why he wasn’t cast in the director’s next effort. Rodriguez naturally obliged and cast the actor in the one role that had not been cast up to that point – Detective Bob.
Quentin Tarantino shot a segment of Sin City for one dollar
Robert Rodriguez has been a close friend and collaborator of Quentin Tarantino for the longest time, even being part of Tarantino’s former production company A Band Apart. Tarantino also starred and penned the script of Rodriguez’s vampire horror From Dusk Till Dawn. When Tarantino embarked on filming his two-part actioner Kill Bill, Rodriguez agreed to score Kill Bill: Volume 2 for one dollar. Tarantino returned the favor when Rodriguez and Miller were helming Sin City by directing one of the segments in the film for one dollar. The segment directed by Tarantino was the driving-to-the-pits scene where Clive Owen’s Dwight is conversing with a dead Jackie boy played by Benicio del Toro.
The co-director credit in the film came at a steep price
Apart from Tarantino helming the short but memorable driving-to-the-pits segment, the rest of the movie was co-directed by Robert Rodriguez and rookie director Frank Miller. However, when it came to who should receive the “co-director” credit a problem arose due to the rules put forth by the Directors Guild of America (DGA). According to the DGA two filmmakers that were not an established team could not be credited together. But neither Rodriguez nor Miller were willing to accept full credit for Sin City, since both contributed to the effort equally. Therefore, in order to receive the co-directorship as planned, Rodriguez quit the DGA. The unfortunate outcome of his resignation was that Rodriguez had to relinquish his director’s seat on John Carter to someone else.
Positive reviews, box-office success & numerous accolades
Made on a production budget of $40 million, Sin City went on to make an admirable $158.7 million at the worldwide box office. The moody neo-noir also received much praise from film critics the world over and as of writing holds a respectable 76% on review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes based on 257 review and an average rating of 7.5/10.
The critical consensus of the website sums up the movie brilliantly by saying, “Visually groundbreaking and terrifically violent, Sin City brings the dark world of Frank Miller’s graphic novel to vivid life.” Furthermore, acclaimed film critic Roger Ebert gave the flick four out of four stars, describing Sin City as “a visualization of the pulp noir imagination, uncompromising and extreme.” The film also received multiple accolades with Mickey Rourke winning a Saturn Award, an Online Film Critics Society Award and a Chicago Film Critics Association Award for his brutally uncompromising performance. The effort was also in competition for the Palme d’Or at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival where Rodriguez walked away with the Technical Grand Prize for the movie’s ground-breaking visuals.
A sequel, Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, was also released in 2014 with most of the original’s main cast reprising their roles but the effort proved to be a critical and financial failure. As at present, the future of the fledgling franchise is up in the air, with the last report suggesting that Legendary Entertainment was working with Frank Miller (and potentially Robert Rodriguez) to develop a TV series adaptation, although there has been no updates on that project since it was first announced back in 2019.
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Hasitha Fernando is a part-time medical practitioner and full-time cinephile. Follow him on Twitter via @DoctorCinephile for regular updates on the world of entertainment.
