The long-in development sequel has been building up some steam over the last several months.  At San Diego Comic-Con, Rodriguez commented that financing is in place, and if the sequel is going to happen, it'll happen this year.  In August, Oscar-winning The Departed screenwriter William Monahan came aboard the project to provide script revisions.

The sequel would once again see several interconnected stories, one of which would be "A Dame to Kill For," a sort of prequel to "The Big Fat Kill," introducing Dwight, the character played by Clive Owen in Sin City.  Additional stories, according to no less a source than Frank Miller, would see new appearances from both Marv and Nancy Callahan, played by Jessica Alba.

IAR Managing Editor Jami Philbrick was on hand for a roundtable interview with Rourke promoting the upcoming 3D action epic Immortals.  In that film, which hits theaters on November 11th, Rourke plays the villainous King Hyperion, but don't necessarily count on seeing Rourke reprising his role as the formidable anti-hero in Sin City 2.  Asked whether or not he'll be returning, should the film actually come to pass, Rourke replied, "Depends. Depends how bad they want me. Ya’ feel me?"

The Sin City role was a big one for the actor, and preceded his Oscar-nominated 2008 turn in Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler.  Rourke explained that he liked the character very much, but that he's in no way eager to once again endure the elaborate makeup process.  "I’m claustrophobic," he explained.  "So the three hours of makeup.  Because you have to keep it on for thirteen-fourteen hours a day. It’s latex and glue and that stuff that gets my eyes all red. I forget what it’s called. A chemical? It’s a nightmare. And the chair, you’ve got the teeth in."

In order to properly convey the ordeal of adopting Marv's battered visage, Rourke told a brief anecdote, saying, "I remember I picked up some chick at a bar in Texas and I invited her to the set to have lunch at the lunch break. I couldn’t take the shit off. Fuck it. I never saw her again. I mean, she did meet me the night before but…"

After The Wrestler, Rourke played a substantial role in another comic book movie, playing the Russian bad guy Whiplash in last year's Iron Man 2.  Rumors have long suggested that director Jon Favreau had some creative disagreements with Marvel Studios on that film, and Rourke commented on the process, saying, "So I try to find the moments where he’s not that clichéd evil bad guy and it’s a big fight. I had it on IRON MAN 2. And they won. Going to work for Marvel and them breaking Favreau’s balls and wanting just a one dimensional villain. So the performance and all I tried to bring to him ends up on the fucking floor. That could cause you not to care as much. Not to want to put that effort in when you try to make it an intelligent bad guy or a bad guy who justifies what his reasons are. So I fight for that all the time"

Finally, Rourke discussed his passion project, a film based around the life of Gareth Thomas, the British rugby player who became the first professional team sports athlete to come out of the closet in 2009.  The actor told the tale of how he became involved with the project in characteristically Rourke-ian fashion, explaining, "I was arm wrestling some rugby players at four in the morning. We had been drinking at a pub in London and I lost. But we became good friends and out of that actually I got interested in meeting these guys. They gave me a magazine about their club. They play with a team called the Huddersfield Bears and we became friends. I was reading the magazine. There was an article about Gareth Thomas, the rugby player who announced that he’s gay. I came back home and was watching PARDON THE INTERUPTION and they were talking about Gareth. They were saying how brave he was for coming out and announcing it. I got on a plane and I met Gareth and I asked him, ‘I’m wanna make your life story.’ I think I beat the studio out there by about four days and he gave me the rights. We’re gonna do this movie now. He announced his retirement three days ago and hopefully in March - I’ve been writing the script for the past year. Hopefully we’ll do it in March."

Full Disclosure: Immortals is produced by Relativity Media, iamROGUE's parent company.