Now It's Clive Owen's Turn to Promise 'Sin City 2'

Stop me if you've heard this one before: The sequel to Sin City will go into production next year. Of course, I heard Frank Miller and Rosario Dawson say this in 2008, I think I heard Robert Rodriguez say it in 2007, I know Angelina Jolie was reportedly cast in the sequel that year, and I'm fairly sure Dawson also said something about it in 2006. The point is, Sin City 2 is a fairly tired line, but people keep chucking it out there. Clive Owen told MTV, "I'm hearing it might be next year," and added that "a very good source" confirmed the news. Would that good source be one of the directors, both of whom have said "next year" in previous years? "Maybe one of them," Owen replied. It's hard to believe that Sin City is almost five years old, perhaps because we've never taken a break from all this sequel talk. But as with anything, it's harder to go back years later with the same level of commitment and originality, especially when you had such a unique and great cast. Some of them will probably not be returning - Mickey Rourke, Jessica Alba, Bruce Willis - but Dawson has always been involved, and getting Owen back would be a good thing. Supposedly, Miller has finished the script, based on his Sin City story A Dame to Kill For, and that's been done for most of this year. But with his schedule, Rodriguez' calendar, and the very busy ensemble, it would have been difficult to even put this together before now. You can thank the success of the first film for at least part of that. And now the question becomes, do you even want a sequel? Again, it's the sort of thing that can work a couple years later or ten to twenty years down the road. But six or seven years between chapters seems both disjointed in terms of continuity and not quite a long enough wait for a fresh beginning.