Sin City was a smash hit released in 2005. It was based on Frank Miller’s dark comic book series and shot in an appropriate film noir style by talented director Robert Rodriguez with help from Miller and Tarantino. It is a visually stunning film and it stars a huge cast of big name talent. In order to achieve the amazing visual style the film was shot in a very unconventional manner with actors recording their scenes separately. Sin City had a budget of $40 million and it went on to take four times that at the worldwide box office and much more on DVD.

After the disaster of RoboCop where Frank Miller wrote a screenplay for the second movie which was ignored and then had the same experience on the third he left Hollywood completely disillusioned. This meant he was reticent to release the film rights to Sin City fearing it would be ruined. Robert Rodriguez was very keen to adapt the graphic novels for the big screen and he was determined to remain faithful to the source material. However in order to get Miller to sign on he had to shoot a proof of concept and he chose The Customer is Always Right. The segment starring Josh Hartnett as a hitman and Marley Shelton as the suicidal woman went on to form the opening sequence of the film and persuaded Miller to get onboard with the project.

The first challenge was to cast the rest of the roles and there was a huge amount of interest in the film from some big names. The role of Jackie Boy eventually went to Benicio Del Toro but Adrien Brody auditioned for the part and Rodriguez originally wanted Johnny Depp. It was Del Toro’s idea to wear the make up so he would look even more like the comic book character and Rodriguez later said it was so good that “people actually forget that’s not what Benicio looks like”.

Michael Douglas was offered the role of Hartigan but thankfully he turned it down and Bruce Willis was cast instead. The part of Senator Roarke was eventually played by Powers Boothe but only after it was turned down by Willem Dafoe and Christopher Walken. The part of the malicious Roarke Junior was offered to Steve Buscemi but he declined. Apparently Leonardo Di Caprio was also pursued and it would have been something of a departure from his usual roles if he had accepted it but he also declined. The role eventually went to Nick Stahl.

The part of Nancy which was filled perfectly by Jessica Alba was also pursued by Jessica Simpson. She auditioned but she wasn’t chosen and there is little doubt the film makers made the right choice there. The original script called for nudity but when Alba refused they just tweaked it deciding it made little difference to the story. Kate Bosworth was the first choice for the part of Gail but she declined and it went to Rosario Dawson.

Anthony Michael Hall was up for the role of Dwight but Clive Owen won out. Apparently Michael Madsen was considered for Marv before Mickey Rourke accepted but it is tough to imagine anyone doing a better job than Rourke in that part and he gave the stand out performance of the movie for me. Madsen later said he approached Rodriguez at the Kill Bill wrap party and asked why he hadn’t been cast in Sin City and the director immediately gave him the only remaining part that wasn’t filled as Hartigan’s partner Bob.

There had been a few films shot on a digital backlot before this such as Casshern and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow but most of the cast and crew were completely new to the process. Each of the actors had to perform the bulk of their scenes in front of green screens although there were segments which used sets. Since many of the parts were not cast when shooting began the film makers used stand ins in many shots who were digitally replaced later. This meant even in sequences where actors appeared together they didn’t shoot the scene with each other. For example Mickey Rourke and Elijah Wood didn’t even meet until after the film was released.

All of the scenes were shot on full colour film and then converted into high quality black and white. With the black and white footage some specific features were colourized to achieve the unique visual style of the film. The contrast was also heightened to create an authentic film noir feel.

There were a few blink and miss them references in the film such as the cover of Miller’s Sin City book Booze, Broads and Bullets which appeared in a few scenes. The swords used by Miho are the same ones that appeared in Kill Bill and were used by the Crazy 88. Apparently Tarantino had been keeping them in his garage. One of the prostitutes in Old Town is dressed as Wonder Woman, she was in the original comic too. Frank Miller has a cameo in the film as a priest.

The film was generally well received by critics but some people were quick to criticise the violence and what they saw as the lack of a human factor. The body count of the entire film is a staggering 41. Apparently scenes such as the torture by Roarke Junior were significantly cut because they were too graphic. In order to get the white blood effect they had to use fluorescent red liquid and bathe it in black light. It was then worked on in post production.

Rodriguez is a huge fan of Miller and in order for them both to be credited as directors he resigned from the Directors Guild of America. He produced a film which was very faithful to the original comic series and he has stated his intention to bring the rest of the series to the cinema screen. Sin City 2 is due to enter production this year.