Screen Rant

Well we once again discovered the benefits of patience.

Yesterday IESB ran a story stating that the cash strapped Weinstein Company had let the rights to a Sin City sequel lapse and that the film would be produced by Robert Rodriguez’ Trouble Maker studios -- but financed by a private equity group. However, someone at the Weinstein Company got wind of the story and said “Hold on a minute -- that’s not true!” Weinstein Lawyer Bert Fields issued a statement to Entertainment Weekly saying:

“TWC’s rights to produce sequels to Sin City remain intact as they always have been. Any suggestion to the contrary is complete hogwash.”

So who is right? The fist-shaking laywer or the movie site’s source? Your guess is as good as ours. [UPDATE: It turns out our friends at IESB were right and the lawyer was just doing what lawyers do: lie.]

Fans of the Frank Miller comic book (and film) are clamoring for the sequel that has been mooted even before the release of the first film. Sin City which was released in 2005 grossed $158 million at the worldwide box office and helped lead to the release of Zach Snyder’s 300 as well as the Frank Miller directed The Spirit (although the less said about that the better).

However, I wouldn’t hold your breath for a sequel to Sin City just yet. Robert Rodriguez is a very busy man -- following Sin City he directed the Planet Terror segment of Grindhouse, the forthcoming Shorts as well as producing a slew of projects including Red Sonja. A source close to Rodriguez says:

“(The rumor that TWC is not involved with Sin City 2 is )not true. That’s a rumor that’s been going around for a while. It’s really just a matter of timing, and he hopes to do it with them in the near future.”

Rodriguez’s next film is reported to be the futuristic crime thriller Nerverackers.

Now fans of Rodriguez will be interested in his next release: Shorts -- a children’s film in the same vein as The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl and his Spy Kids films.

Like a mini-George Lucas, Rodriguez has been pushing the boundaries of technology in film and Shorts does not appear to be any different.

Check out the video below to see how the From Dusk Till Dawn helmer is using computers to bring visually interesting films to the big screen on a limited budget and time frame.

Now have a look at the trailer for Shorts:

[See post to watch Flash video]

While it may not be to everyone’s taste it’s looks kind of cute and is sure to keep the kids interested for 90 minutes.

More on Shorts and Sin City 2 when we get it.

Sources: IESB, EW and Joblo

[UPDATE: Nerverackers has been pulled from Dimension Films' 2010 release slate. See Post for Details.]

Recently at SXSW, fanboy favorite Robert Rodriguez shed light on some of the projects he has coming up: Sin City 2, Machete and Nerverackers.

Check out what the famed director had to say on the status of the three films.

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SIN CITY 2

The first is the much awaited and anticipated Sin City 2, a film promised by pretty much everyone involved to be definitely getting made at some point. But that point has seemed like a dot in the distance to us fans ever since the first one was released in 2005. For awhile, it seemed like Rodriguez was following in Grindhouse buddy Quentin Tarantino’s trend of promising us films, and then taking forever to make them (Inglourious Basterds ring a bell?).

Here’s what Rodriguez had to say about the progress of the sequel:

“I always say Sin City 2 is right around the corner, because that’s what everybody wants to hear and I like pleasing the audience,” but admits that, “It might be a long corner.”

Well, at least that’s honest, Robert. This sequel has been in a kind of “on the fence” phase for years and now we at least have an admission that it might be a bit longer before we see it.

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MACHETE

It seems that Sin City 2 is the only project on Rodriguez’s agenda that’s a long way away: the director spilled some beans on the progress of his much-hoped for Machete movie, a full-length version of the fake trailer that ran before Grindhouse. We’ve been promised the movie pretty much ever since Grindhouse came out, and we should all be forgiven for worrying that we might not see it at all (or at least not for “a long while,” like Sin City 2).

Well, here’s what Rodriguez had to say about Machete:

“I’m not going to bullshit you guys. We are making Machete. We’ve already got the script and we’re ready to go.”

The Machete fake trailer was absolute genius (as was pretty much all of the fake trailers in Grindhouse were), and it would be very cool to see it turned into a movie (Rodriguez has actually hinted before that it would be a trilogy, but we’ll take that theory one movie at a time).

But with Machete being of the same style has Grindhouse, I wonder if RR will be able to get the financing for the film. I’m pretty sure after the financial bomb that was Grindhouse, the Weinsteins aren’t too keen on throwing more money at another similarly styled movie. Hopefully Rodriguez can make this thing on a fairly small budget, or if he’s so passionate about it, go ahead and finance it himself.

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NEVERCRACKERS

Finally Rodriguez talked a bit more about his upcoming sci-fi flick, Nerverackers, and his talk is a bit more on the cocky side than you might expect:

“I used to say it was, it’s kind of like Blade Runner, but that was Blade Walker. This is Blade Runner.”

Wow…

Robert, I know you’re excited about your upcoming projects, and about delving into a genre relatively unknown to you with Nerverackers, but to outright slam a classic sci-fi film like Blade Runner is almost a little too confident. Considering the premise for Nerverackers, it’s fair to compare the two films, but I don’t know if it’s right to say that your movie will be better than another before you’ve even shot frame one.

Nerverackers is still slated as a 2010 release.

UPDATE: Nerverackers WAS slated for an April 2010, release, however, with Rodriguez now full-swing into production on Machete and his upcoming Predator reboot/sequel project, Predators, it seems Dimension Films jumped the gun by announcing Nerverackers’ release, according to Bloddy-Disgusting. We’ll keep you posted as we here more.

Robert Rodriguez is a guy who seems to have a billion projects in his sights and it beats me how he gets the time and energy to work on (or even simply think about) all of them at the same time. He probably seldom has any free time – even when he’s just filming on one movie, he must have his other projects constantly on his mind.

I look forward to anything Rodriguez puts out, and Sin City 2, Machete and Nevercrackers are all on my “highly anticipated” list.

Sources: /Film and Cinemablend

Update Source: Bloody-Disgusting

He will be working with long time collaborators Dimension, who’s past joint efforts include Planet Terror, Sin City and the Spy Kids franchise.

To say this genre is out of left field for the director is an understatement indeed, but it’s even more surprising to read just what he’s aiming for as far as plot goes:

Set in 2085, the story centers on a character named Joe Tezca who is part of an elite unit dispatched to quell a crime wave in a theoretically perfect future society.

Rodriguez’s resume has consisted of mainly horror (From Dusk Till Dawn, Planet Terror, The Faculty) and action films (El Mariachi, Desperado, Once Upon A Time In Mexico). The only film(s) even remotely close to this upcoming Nerverackers is the Spy Kids series, but even then it’s stretching to link the two.

But I’ve been a fan of pretty much everything Rodriguez has done so far (well…. excluding the two Spy Kids sequels; why, Rodriguez, why?) and therefore am willing to give anything he makes a fair shot. Does jumping into a genre in what seems like a feet-first fashion sound a bit on the ambitious side? Sure it does, but I’m pretty sure if he’s willing to invest time, effort and without a doubt lots of money (which with the genre and plot outline it sounds like it’ll cost a fair bit to make) that he’s confident in his ability to make it work.

But what are your thoughts on this project? Think it sounds like a good idea and do you think Rodriguez will make a good job of it?

Nerverackers currently has a release date of April 16th 2010.

Source: Variety