After about seven years during which promises of an imminent Sin City sequel started making co-directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller seem sort of like broke dads promising their kids a rollercoaster in the backyard, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is actually happening.  Or at least, it's more likely than it has ever been.  Today, Dimension Films officially announced an October 2, 2013 release date for the sequel, and also confirmed that stars Mickey Rourke and Jessica Alba are committed to return.

So apparently a sequel to Sin City is actually going into production this summer, after seven years of seemingly endless promises and well past the point at which it seemed it would never happen.  The official announcement for Sin City: A Dame to Kill For was a week ago today, and with Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller set to direct again, there are plenty of questions, including, "Really?  No, really?  This is happening?"  Another is, of course, just who will return from the 2005 film.

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It's been seven years since Sin City set a new standard for fidelity in adapting a comic book, with co-directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller basically using Miller's influential hyper-noir comics as storyboards for the audacious, green-screen intensive production.  Talk of a sequel taking on more of Miller's work began almost immediately, the directors have been promising that it will happen almost ceaseless for the better part of a decade with nothing to show for it.  But it's actually going to go down now.  Really.

2005's Sin City set a new precedent for faithful comic book adaptations, with co-directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller essentially using Miller's hyper-noir black and white books as storyboards for the outrageously violent interconnecting tales from Basin City.  Of the many strange characters populating Miller's world, perhaps the most over-the-top and popular is Marv, an unstoppable simpleton played by Mickey Rourke in the segment titled "The Hard Goodbye."  Though Marv met his end in that story, the fractured chronology of the first film would allow Marv to have another adventure in Sin City 2, the sequel that Rodriguez and Miller have been promising for the last six years.  Rourke, a notoriously eccentric and forthright actor, isn't so sure he'll back, however.

In 2005, Sin City brought the hyper-noir comic books written and illustrated by Frank Miller, whose artistic contribution to the medium has been incalculable, to the screen as easily the most faithful comic book movie made before or since.  As co-directed by Miller and El Mariachi helmer Robert Rodriguez, the black-and-white world of Basin City came to screamingly ludicrous life, complete with over-the-top violence, hard-boiled dialogue, and dangerous, dizzy dames aplenty. 

Two such dames were played by Jaime King, the lovely and talented model-turned actress who stars alongside Rachel Bilson in the upcoming television series Heart of Dixie.  In Sin City, she played the doomed Goldie, as well as her determined twin sister Wendy.  IAR's managing editor Jami Philbrick had the chance to chat with King last night at a party in Hollywood celebrating X-Men: First Class, which was released on Blu-ray and DVD today. The talented actress provided an update on the perpetually-in-development sequel Sin City 2 and confirmed that she'll have a role in the next installment, if and when it actually becomes a reality.

At the relatively young age of thirty-three, actor Josh Hartnett has already established an extremely impressive resume of film work appearing in such popular movies as The Virgin Suicides, Pearl Harbor, Black Hawk Down, Sin City, The Black Dahlia, and 30 Days of Night. The young actor has been fortunate enough to collaborate with some of the best directors in the industry such as Ridley Scott, Brian De Palma, Robert Rodriguez, Sophia Coppola, and Michael Bay. He’s also shared the screen with several of the most beloved actors around including Harrison Ford, Morgan Freeman, Alec Baldwin, Bruce Willis, and Ewan McGregor. Now Hartnett returns to the screen in a new movie that features an equally incredible ensemble of actors called Bunraku, which is available today on VOD and is scheduled to be release in theaters on September 30^th.

In the film, which combines elements of both the Samurai and Western genres, Hartnett plays the Drifter, a mysterious unnamed man on a mission of revenge against a crime boss named Nicola (Ron Perlman). Also in pursuit of Nicola is a samurai named Yoshi (Japanese musician Gackt), and together the two warriors unite to take down the crime boss and recover a family heirloom that he stole from Yoshi’s clan. In addition to Hartnett, Gackt, and Perlman (Drive), the film boasts an impressive cast of actors that includes Woody Harrelson (Zombieland), Kevin McKidd (Grey’s Anatomy), and Demi Moore (A Few Good Men).

Robert Rodriguez has been talking up a potential sequel to Sin City since very shortly after the first film debuted in 2005.  For the last half-decade, he and co-director Frank Miller will offer a hopeful update on Sin City 2 seemingly ever few months, and the would-be movie is almost always tantalizingly close to production, according to the independently-minded director and medium-redefining comic book writer/artist.  It should come as no surprise, then, that at his Comic-Con panel today, Rodriguez made some optimistic statements about Sin City 2.  What might be a bit more surprising, however, is that he also announced two Machete sequels, Machete Kills and Machete Kills Again.  There's more, though: Rodriguez is now behind the latest attempt at a new version of Heavy Metal.

Former model Devon Aoki, who you may remember as ninja-star throwing, decapitating machine Miho in Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller’s Sin City, is the latest actress to announce her pregnancy.

Sin City vixen, Jessica Alba, is looking to reteam with director Robert Rodriguez for Spy Kids 4: All the Time in the World, reports Heat Vision Blog. The two previously worked together on Sin City and more recently, Machete, which comes out in September.