Last month I got to go on what was probably my favorite set visit so far – a visit to the Montreal set of 300, Zach Snyder’s adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel. We happened to be on set the first day Miller visited, and we had a chance to talk to him.
Most of that stuff is going to be in the vault for a couple of months, until we get the OK to run it, but here’s some of the interview that’s kosher to share – Miller talking about Sin City and his plans for the film series, his experience directing, and what he thinks of what you’re saying about his comics on the CHUD message boards.
Empire Online scooped us on some of this (damn their very nice, and harder working than me, reporter!), but there’s plenty new here to read!
Q: You have a Sin City story that references the Hot Gates, the story that became 300. Is that when you first became aware of the battle?
Miller: In referencing the Hot Gates – I threw that in almost like a dog marking it’s territory. Nobody touch that! It’s mine! I knew it would be the next book – I had been doing research.
Q: Did you and Robert ever consider including that scene in the Sin City movie?
Miller: Not really. It would have been disconcerting and weird, in an already pretty strange movie!
Q: You co-directed Sin City – is there a frustration in not being able to co-direct this movie? Is it hard to relinquish that role?
Miller: It’s not hard. It’s agonizing. Damn Zach Snyder! But no, it’s in good hands.
Q: Did you enjoy co-directing? Is it something you would do again?
Miller: Try and stop me. I’m finishing the script right now for Sin City 2, and another screenplay as well, and I can’t wait to get behind the camera again.
Q: So will this be the last Frank Miller adaptation that won’t be directed by Frank Miller? Will all future adaptations be Frank Miller productions?
Miller: Yeah.
Q: So if Martha Washington ever makes it to the screen, it’ll be you behind the camera?
Miller: That’s right.
Q: Speaking of Martha Washington, that’s a character who
would be great in a movie in the current political climate. Is that a
movie you’d like to get going?
Miller: I’d like to, but I have so many projects going on, it’s hard to
put this one first. I have to do Sin City while the opportunity
presents itself.
Q: David Cronenberg has said he never uses storyboards. He actually used Sin City as an example, about how artists don’t understand the lens.
Miller: I’ve got nothing but respect for David Cronenberg. The way Sin City was shot turned into something much closer to what I see on my drawing board. It was being able to draw with Bruce Willis walking in the foreground. It was wonderful that way. But I found the relationship between drawing and filming with CGI to be so close to be ridiculous. That’s what Robert Rodriguez had predicted to me, but I didn’t really trust it until I was there and I was seeing the footage. The two forms, the two media, are deeply related and a lot of what works in one works in the other.
Q: You mentioned Sin City 2. Are you guys working on Sin City 3 at the same time?
Miller: If I had my way there’d be five. But that’s if I had my way.
Q: Would that be the graphic novels that exist, or would you write new ones?
Miller: Oh no, five would take care of the graphic novels. But there’s new material I’m writing for the second one that will probably also be a separate graphic novel. It’s a Nancy Callahan story that I’ve always wanted to do.
Q: You’ve been getting some nasty reviews about All Star
Batman and Robin, and the response has been rough on internet message
boards as well. Do you log onto the web and see what people are saying?
Miller: [mimes slitting his wrists] Across for the hospital, down for the morgue!
I can’t. I really can’t. If the internet had been around for Dark
Knight [Returns], they would have been complaining as much as they are now,
because the internet is there for people to complain. Batman says
‘Goddamn’ and they get the vapors. Screw ‘em.