Variety says that Robert Rodriguez has resigned from the Directors Guild of America in order to direct the upcoming Sin City adaptation for Dimension. The film starts shooting on sound stages in Austin, Texas on Monday.
Days before beginning production on the Dimension drama “Sin City,” Rodriguez resigned his DGA membership so that he could co-direct with Frank Miller, a film neophyte who created, wrote and illustrated the three-book graphic novel series on which the movie is based.
DGA rules dictate that there be only one director assigned to direct a motion picture at any given time, although the guild occasionally grants a waiver to that policy. On Thursday, a DGA spokesman said, “The guild regrets Mr. Rodriguez’s resignation, however, we stand firmly behind the principle of one director-one film.”
For one thing, Rodriguez plans to have Quentin Tarantino direct part of the film, along with Miller and him. Tarantino may be billed as a “special guest director” or whatever title Rodriguez wants to bestow, now that he’s no longer under strict DGA guidelines about who gets behind-the-camera credit.
He hardly seemed rattled, for instance, that aside from his DGA defection and welcoming a new baby, he was in the thick of assembling cast for a film that begins shooting in four days. Rodriguez has been talking with the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, Bruce Willis, Steve Buscemi, Brittany Murphy, Christopher Walken and Michael Douglas.
All that’s certain is that Mickey Rourke will anchor the story segment that will begin shooting Monday. The remaining cast will draw from those who are available for a reasonable price to work a short shift in a cool film.
Though Miller has done acclaimed graphic novels on Batman and Daredevil and created the Elektra character that will be reprised by Jennifer Garner in the Rob Bowman-directed “Daredevil” spinoff film, the author refused to sell “Sin City” to any filmmaker. Rodriguez wanted it badly enough to write a feature script on spec and shoot the first scene on his own dime with Josh Hartnett and Marley Shelton. That and a promise to make Miller his co-director won Rodriguez the property.
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Source: Variety
