Synopsis: Collette McVeigh is a Republican living in Belfast with her mother and hardliner IRA brothers.  When she is arrested for her part in an aborted IRA bomb plot in London, an MI5 officer offers her a choice: lose everything and go to prison or return to Belfast to spy on her own family.  With her son’s life in her hands, Collette chooses to place her trust in the MI5 and return home. When her brothers’ secret operation is ambushed, suspicions of an informant are raised and Collette finds both herself and her family in grave danger.

It's been eight years since Sin City set a new standard for fidelity to source material in a comic book adaptation, essentially using Frank Miller's Dark Horse comic as storyboards.  Since then, co-directors Robert Rodriguez and Miller have promised a sequel.  For years, that sequel looked like a pipe dream.

But Sin City: A Dame to Kill For is currently scheduled to hit theaters in 2D and 3D on October 4th.

When the follow-up finally came together last year, Rosario Dawson was one of the first Sin City actors to enthusiastically announce her renewed participation.  Now that she has completed her work on Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, Dawson is talking exclusively to IAR about playing Gail again after such a long break, promising that the return to Basin City will be "incredible."

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For continues adding outstanding actors to its appropriately crowded cast.  Josh Brolin is officially joining up as familiar Basin City badass Dwight, and Christopher Meloni will play what Frank Miller would describe as a tough-as-nails cop in a city where the nails are always crooked.

Intruders starring Clive Owen (Croupier, Children of Men) and directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (Intacto, 28 Weeks Later) releases on DVD and BluRay today, Tuesday, July 17th. The film tells the story of two different children living in separate countries that are visited nightly by a faceless being that wants to take possession of them.

I recently had the chance to speak with Juan Carlos Fresnadillo about Intruders. The directed discussed how the film was therapy in a way, where the idea for the screenplay came from, how working with Clive Owen was one of his best experiences as a filmmaker, and his upcoming reboot of Highlander.

In his career as an actor, Jason Statham has quite frequently played unstoppable tough guys, and whether out of revenge, profit, or self-preservation, Staham characters have perpetrated violence against innumerable bad guys, good guys, and assorted anonymous henchmen.  In this Friday's Safe, written and directed by Boaz Yakin, Statham stars as a former NYPD cop and cage fighter who kicks ass in order to protect a helpless a young girl.

See, Catherine Chan plays a little girl who knows the numerical code to a safe containing an invaluable MacGuffin, meaning that Statham must safeguard her from corrupt cops, Triad gangsters, and the Russian mafia, all of whom would happily dispose of the child once they opened that safe.

The story of Safe had us thinking about the tried-and-true trope of serious cinematic tough guys whose primary goal is the protecting of otherwise helpless youths.  We're not talking about guys like Superman or Spider-Man, who rescue different kids on a daily basis.  Instead, this latest Rogue 10 lists, in no particular order, ten onscreen heroes who dedicate themselves to their youthful charges.

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.

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.

After taking cracks at three decidedly more British (okay, one Welsh) actors, the new Oldboy remake may have found an actor to play its villain on an entirely different continent.  The new take on the South Korean revenge classic is being directed by Spike Lee, and with its leading man and lady signed up and ready to go, the task has been finding the right guy to play the heavy.  It seems Sharlto Copley is the latest actor to be offered the role of the mysterious man messing with Josh Brolin.

Opening on March 30th is the new horror film from Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) called Intruders. The movie stars an international cast of actors that includes Clive Owen (Sin City, Children of Men), Carice van Houten (Repo Men), Kerry Fox (Bright Star), and Ella Purnell (Never Let Me Go).

IAR's Managing Editor Jami Philbrick recently had a chance to sit down with director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo to discuss his work on Intruders, as well as his upcoming reboot of Highlander. The talented director talked about Intruders, his unique visual style, the origin of fear, creating supernatural elements, casting Clive Owen, the current status of the Highlander reboot, his love for the original, whether or not it will be his next film, working on the script, conformation that it will be a reboot and NOT a remake, and possibly casting Owen as an immortal in the upcoming film. 

More than a month ago, we ran a story with the headline, "Will Colin Firth Play the Villain in Spike Lee's Oldboy?"  The answer to that question is an emphatic "No."  The Oscar-winning British thespian was offered the antagonistic role in the American remake of the incredible 2003 South Korean film, but he recently passed on the part, which would pit him against Josh Brolin, who is set to play the lead.  Well, if an American Oldboy has to happen, at least it involves some fascinating talent.  The latest potential addition is Clive Owen, who has reportedly been offered the role that Firth declined.