The Characters in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For

There are several movies coming out this year that I am super excited to see. Guillermo Del Toro finally has another movie coming out, there are remakes to some of my favorite movies (Carrie and Oldboy) that I'm pretty curious to see, and the next Hunger Games movie actually looks pretty good. The movie that is number one on my must see list, however, is Sin City: A Dame to Kill for, which is coming out on October 4th! Here's a little looksie at the fabulous cast in this movie.

Returning Characters: 

 As you can see, we have a lot of the main cast returning for the sequel. Marv, Gail, Wendy, and Goldie are all in A Dame to Kill For, which is set before the stories in the first Sin City movie (which is why Marv and Goldie are still alive). There is also going to be an original story about Nancy, which is where I am assuming that Hartigan and Senator Roark are going to come into play. 

Returning Characters, New Actors
 One thing that I hate about sequels is when they recast characters. They did that a lot for this movie, but for some of them, it really couldn't be helped.

Dwight McCarthy

This is a time where it was necessary to recast the actor. For those of y'all who don't know (or didn't really pay attention to the dialogue in the first movie), in the story A Dame to Kill For, Dwight has a different face. Not to give away the end of the movie but (SPOILER ALERT) he gets his new face at the end of the story, so I'm really curious if Clive Owen is going to make a cameo...
Anyways, I think that Josh Brolin is a great choice for pre-surgery Dwight, and I was psyched when Robert Rodriguez put the above pic on his Twitter!

Miho

This is the one that I was the most bummed about. Apparently Devon Aoki is preggers, so they replaced her with Jamie "suddenly-i'm-in-everything" Chung.

Manute

This recasting just makes me sad. Manute has a much bigger part in A Dame to Kill For than he did in The Big Fat Kill, so they had to replace Michael Clarke Duncan after he passed away. Dennis Haysbert has that great deep voice of his, so I'm sure he'll make a great Manute.

Bob

For the longest time I kept reading that Michael Madsen was going to come back and I had no idea what part Jeremy Piven was going to play. According to IMDb, however, Jeremy Piven is replacing Madsen as Bob, Hartigan's partner. I'm assuming he is going to be part of the Nancy storyline.

New Characters

Ava Lord

 Although I am really disappointed that she is not being played by Angelina Jolie (see here), I think that Eva Green is a decent choice for Ava Lord. 

Joey and Sally

 

Joey and Sally are two characters that appear at the beginning of the A Dame to Kill For story. Joey is a married man, and Sally is his go-to girl from Old Town who speaks in a babyish voice to please her customers (and ends up needing saving by Dwight). I think that Ray Liotta and Juno Temple are good choices, but since Temple is so young, it'll make it pretty creepy.

Mort

Christopher Meloni is going to play Mort, a Sin City cop who ends up falling in love with Ava Lord.

Johnny and Marcy

These are two completely original characters that have not appeared in any of the Sin City comics. According to Wikipedia, Johnny (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a cocky gambler, and Marcy (Julia Garner) is a stripper that he meets.

Other:

There is still no word on who is going to play Ava's husband, Damien Lord. Until I read that he was going to be playing Bob, this is who I thought that Jeremy Piven was going to play.

My 10 Favorite Romance Films

In honor of Valentine's Day, here is my list of my ten favorite love stories in film. After horror films, romance films are my second favorite genre. These are the films that tug at my heart strings the most.

10. Walk the Line

What makes me really love this story is that it is about real people. I have no idea how true it is, but to be honest, I really don't care. The romantic in me goes crazy for my favorite scene in the movie. I love the ending when he proposes to her on stage and she finally says yes. The look on his face when he says "Yeah?" just makes me want to cry. I tried to find that scene on YouTube, but they don't have it! GRRR!

9. Edward Scissorhands

Even thought he is a robot/ Frankenstein's monster-type man and has scissors for hands, how could you not fall in love with Johnny Depp as Edward Scissorhands. The scene above is just heart breaking. She asks him to hold her, but he says that he can't because he's afraid that he might hurt her. I love how she just goes up to him and wraps his arms around her.

8. Jane Eyre

When I first read that Michael Fassbender was cast as Mr. Rochester, I thought that it was a very peculiar casting choice because Mr. Rochester is described as an unattractive older man, which Fassy most certainly is not. When I saw this movie in theaters, I really could not care less about that. Since I read the book, I already knew everything that was going to happen, but I couldn't help but cry (I'm seriously always crying during movies) during the scene where he proposes.

 

 



 



7. A Very Long Engagement

Even though there are very few scenes when we see the two characters actually together, this is a really incredible love story. I love when love stories show them first as kids and then as older. You see this also in films like Slumdog Millionaire and Never Let Me Go. I just love the idea of two people being in love with eachother for their whole lives. I also love how Mathilde never gives up on Maneche. Even though everyone was telling her that he was dead, she knew in her heart that he was still alive.




6. The Princess Bride

I honestly don't think it is possible for someone to not like The Princess Bride. This movie is funny, extremely quotable, and has lots of great characters. It is also a story about true love.



5. Pride and Prejudice

My favorite Jane Austen novel is Emma, but I like the film version of Pride and Prejudice better than Emma. I have seen the one with Laurence Olivier as well, but I think that the Keira Knightley, Matthew McFadyen one is better. I love Pride and Prejudice because it shows how you don't choose the one you fall in love with and that it could end up being someone that you thought you hated.



4. Bright Star

I love both Ben Whishaw and Abbie Cornish and think that they are perfect as John Keats and Fanny Brawne. They are two people who fall in love, but cannot marry because he is a poor poet and cannot afford to marry. This movie is just full of really sweet moments with the two of them together, and then has this tragic ending. There are two moments where Fanny Brawne cries in this movie, when John has to go away with Mr. Brown, and when Mr. Brown tells her that he is dead, and I always start tearing up during both of them, especially the latter. I don't know whats more tragic, the fact that he died so young, or that they were apart when he died.



3. Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights is probably the least romantic movie on my list. Wuthering Heights isn't so much about love, but is about jealousy and revenge. Heathcliff and Cathy love eachother, but she decides that she would rather be rich than be with someone that she loves. So Heathcliff runs away, gets rich, and decides to marry her sister in law to get revenge.

Wuthering Heights is also my second favorite book (after Frankenstein). I have seen eight different film versions, including a terrible MTV version, but the 1939 version with Lawrence Olivier and Merle Oberon will always be my favorite.

 

 

2. Beauty and the Beast

Beauty in the Beast has always been my favorite Disney film. I honestly don't know if I could fall in love with a man with a big hairy bull head, but I love that Belle can.



1. Moulin Rouge and Camille

I put these two together because they are literally the same thing. Young man meets beautiful courtesean/ "kept woman" because she mistakes him for a Duke/ Baron, and they both fall in love with the woman is dying of consumption. Although she loves him very much, she is forced to make him believe that she doesn't love him, but, thankfully, he learns the truth before she dies. I love both of these movies, but Moulin Rouge is my absolute favorite romance film. It has Camille's tragic love story mixed with great songs, crazy production design, and beautiful costumes. That is why it is my tradition to watch Moulin Rouge every Valentine's Day.

Casting Ideas for Female Sin City Characters

Robert Rodriguez once said that he wanted to film all of Frank Miller's Sin City stories, and here are my ideas for casting some of the female characters.

Ava Lord (A Dame to Kill For)- Angelina Jolie

Even though filming has started on Si n City: A Dame to Kill For, and it already has a release date, we still don't know who will be playing the film's title character, the dame to kill for, Mrs. Ava Lord. I have stated on my blog several times that the only actress who I believe can do the character justice is Angelina Jolie. Apparently the part was written with her in mind, as well it should have been. But...there is still no news on the subject, so I am just going to keep writing about how much I want her in this role.

Esther (Hell and Back) -Kerry Washington

 



 

Maybe it is just because I chose a great picture of Kerry Washington, but it looks like she could have been used as a model for Frank Miller's drawing of Esther. Not only does she have the looks for it, but the lovely Ms. Washington also has to acting chops to play Wallace's lonely love interest in the Sin City story Hell and Back.

 

Delia (Blue Eyes) -Marion Cotillard

 

Blue Eyes is one of my favorite Sin City yarns, so I put a lot of thought into who would make a great Delia. Despite her angelic face, her roles in movies like A Very Long Engagement and The Dark Knight Rises prove that Marion Cotillard makes a great femme fatale. This is very important, since Delia is an assassin who proves her dedication to her work by killing the man that she loves.

Mary (The Babe Wore Red) -Christina Hendricks

 

Unlike a lot of female Sin City characters, Mary is more of a damsel in distress type role. What makes her interesting is that she gets into all of this trouble the night before she takes her vows to become a nun. The only real requirement that this character has is that the actress is drop dead gorgeous, and while there are several gorgeous actresses, I think that the beautiful Ms. Christina Hendricks would be a great edition to the Sin City series.

 

Amy (Daddy's Little Girl)- Emily Browning

 





 

This is another instance where there is an actress who looks just like the character. I think that Emily Browning would be great as a young woman who is not as sweet and innocent as she looks.

My Dream Cast: The Hunchback of Notre Dame

I read this book for the first time recently, and I really loved it. Before reading it, I had seen two different film versions, the Disney version and the one with Anthony Hopkins. While reading it I also watched the one with Mandy Patinkin and Salma Hayek. A lot of people get annoyed that movies keep getting made of the same book, but I actually like it when it is a story that I love. I've seen a buttload of different versions of my two favorite books, Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights, and I love watching the different versions to see what they do differently with the stories. So, as you can very well imagine, I was excited when I heard about an upcoming film version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It is apparently going to star Josh Brolin, and will have some sort of involvement with Tim Burton, as either director and/ or as a producer.

Whenever I read books I always see them as movies and picture actors as the different characters, so this list came to me while I was reading the book. Here is my dream cast for the upcoming film version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Quasimodo

It has already been announced that Josh Brolin is going to play the bell-ringer, and that is unlikely to change since, unless I am mistaken, Brolin is the one to really get the ball rolling on this film production. While I do love Josh Brolin and am very curious to see him as Quasimodo (as well as the lead in Spike Lee's version of Oldboy), I actually had someone else in mind for Quasimodo while I was reading the book....

I think that Tom Hardy would be great as the Hunchback. With his performance as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, we saw that he's not showing his pretty face. He is great at emoting with just his eyes, which would help bring sympathy to the disfigured bell ringer. Also, he has a pretty distinctive speaking voice, which is something that could benefit the character.

Claude Frollo

Speaking of distinctive speaking voices, I really think that Alan Rickman is the obvious choice for Claude Frollo. There really is no other option that I can think of.
He just has that face and that deep voice that makes him so great at playing villainous characters.

Esmeralda

This is the toughest one, in my opinion. Of all the characters in the upcoming film, I think that this is the one people will be judging the casting of the most. She is, after all, the most well-known character in the novel, other than the title character himself. While reading the book, naturally I was picturing myself as Esmeralda, but since that is unlikely to happen, I've thought of some more viable options.

Esmeralda is usually played by an older actress in film versions of Hunchback, but in the book she is actually a teenager, so I thought it made sense to look at younger actresses.



Alicia Vikander



Ivana Baquero

Around the time I was reading the book I saw both A Royal Affair and Anna Karenina, so  I was seeing a lot of Alicia Vikander. I thought that she was great in both of those films and could bring the innocence and naivete to the character of Esmaralda. I also thought of Ivana Baquero. Even though she was really young, I loved her in Pan's Labyrinth, and I was really bummed that she didn't get cast in the upcoming Carrie remake. She has also very pretty, which is pretty much a requirement for whoever plays Esmeralda.

 

Phoebus

 

 

When thinking of someone for Phoebus, I was trying to think of someone who would be handsome enough to make us understand why Esmeralda falls so hard for someone she barely knows. With a character like this, I think that you would have to cast someone really good looking, so that people aren't thinking that Esmeralda is really stupid the whole time. Someone who came to mind was the very good looking Armie Hammer. I think that he would be great at playing the charming Captain of the King's Archers, who is basically the reason for Esmeralda's death.

 

Pierre Gringoire







Ben Whishaw

Andrew Garfield

When I was reading the book, I was only thinking of Andrew Garfield as Gringoire. After seeing Skyfall, however, I have been watching Ben Whishaw in a lot of things, and have decided that he should be in every movie ever. I've liked him ever since I saw him in I'm Not There (he was my second favorite Bob Dylan, after Cate Blanchett), but I am REALLY starting to like him now, and it helps that a lot of his films (and one of my new favorite shows, The Hour) have been on TV a lot during my winter break. I think that either of these two handsome British actors would be great as the poet who Esmeralda marries to save his life. I am leaning a bit more towards Whishaw, however. He is great at playing a poet (Bright Star).