Sin City: Welcome to Town

Nick Stahl (Roarke Jr/Yellow Bastard) made his film debut at twelve and has continued to display a broad range of talent. Stahl was most recently seen in the critically acclaimed HBO series “Carnivale,” in which he stars as Ben Hawkins. He also played the role of ‘John Connor’ in “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,” opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger and Claire Danes, was seen in the indie film “Twist” and the Sundance feature “Bookies.”
Over the years, Stahl has maintained his presence with a number of memorable films, most notably the critically acclaimed, Academy Award nominated film, “In the Bedroom.” He also gave a chilling performance in director Larry Clark’s “Bully,” opposite Brad Renfro and Bijou Phillips. His other film credits include “The Thin Red Line,” directed by Terrence Malick and co-staring Sean Penn and George Clooney; and “Safe Passage,” opposite Susan Sarandon and Sam Shepard.
Born in Harlington, Texas and raised in Dallas, Stahl started to perform in children’s plays at the age of four. His first professional role was at the age of ten in the television movie “Stranger at My Door” with Robert Urich. He followed with another movie of the week, “A Woman with a Past,” opposite Pamela Reed. Shortly thereafter, he received the coveted role of the young boy in “The Man Without a Face,” who brings out the love in a physically and emotionally scarred man (played by Mel Gibson). Gibson gave him the role over thousands of others after being impressed by his screen test. The following year he completed another movie for television, “Incident in a Small Town,” with Walter Matthau and the Disney feature “Tall Tale,” in which he co-starred opposite Patrick Swayze. Stahl also co-starred with Martha Plimpton in Tim Blake Nelson’s directorial debut, “Eye of God,” which premiered at the Sundance Film festival.

Devon Aoki (Miho) made her engaging screen debut in the summer hit, “2 Fast 2 Furious” for director John Singleton. Most recently, Devon starred in “D.E.B.S.” for director Angela Robinson. Devon is also currently one of the international faces of Lancôme, the leading cosmetics company in the world.
Devon began her career as a top model at age fourteen. While living in London, she quickly ascended to become one of the most sought after models. Her cross-cultural international appeal has established Devon as a public figure all over the world, including her family’s homeland of Japan, where she has endorsed companies such as Shishedo, Loreal, Sunsystems, Toyota and Peachtree Juices. Devon’s extensive work in the fashion industry includes editorial pictorals for numerous major magazines.
A favorite with photographers as well as designers, she has been featured in numerous campaigns including Chanel by Karl Lagerfeld, Versace by Steven Meisel, Wella by Ella von Unwerth, Cerrutti by Annette Aurell and Moschino. In addition, Devon has made numerous runway appearances, which include Thierry Mugler, Fendi, Gaultier, Givenchy, Ferretti, Ralph Lauren, Yves St. Laurent, Bella Freud, Anna Molinari, Versace and Chanel. She served as Karl Lagerfeld’s muse and was the bride of Chanel five seasons in a row.

Alexis Bledel (Becky) is quickly emerging as one of Hollywood’s brightest talents in both film and television. She made her television debut in the WB’s critically acclaimed series “Gilmore Girls” starring as Rory Gilmore, a role that earned her the 2002 Family Friendly Forum Award for Best Actress in a Drama, as well as nominations for Choice Actress in a Drama at the 2002 and 2003 Teen Choice Awards. She most recently starred in Gurinder Chadha’s “Bride and Prejudice,” a Bollywood musical version of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Next, Alexis will star in the independent film “Orphan King” for writer/director Andrew Wilder.

In the fall of 2002, Alexis made her feature film debut in Disney’s “Tuck Everlasting,” which is based on the acclaimed novel by Natalie Babbitt and also starring Ben Kingsley, William Hurt, Sissy Spacek, and Jonathan Jackson. Alexis began her acting career appearing in community theater in her hometown of Houston, Texas. She also modeled in New York during her school breaks. Before winning the role of Rory Gilmore, Alexis attended NYU Film School to study writing and directing.

FILMMAKERS

Robert Rodriguez (Director, Producer, Cinematographer, Editor, Composer) was a student at the University of Texas at Austin in 1991 when wrote the script to his first feature film -- while sequestered at a drug research facility as a paid subject in a clinical experiment. That paycheck covered the cost of shooting his film. He planned to make the money back by selling the film to the Mexican home video market.
The film was “El Mariachi” (1993), which Rodriguez wrote, directed, photographed, edited and sound-recorded – for $7,000. While shopping it to the video market, Rodriguez signed with a powerful agent at ICM. Columbia Pictures then bought the rights and signed Rodriguez to a two-year writing and directing deal. “El Mariachi” went on to win the coveted Audience Award for best dramatic film at the Sundance Film Festival, and was honored at the Berlin, Munich, Edinburgh, Deauville and Yubari (Japan) festivals. “El Mariachi” became the lowest budget movie ever released by a major studio and the first American film released in Spanish. Rodriguez wrote about these experiences in Rebel Without a Crew , a book published by Dutton Press.
Although it was an astonishing debut for a 23-year-old, Rodriguez was already a seasoned filmmaker. The third of ten children born to Cecilio and Rebecca Rodriguez in San Antonio, Texas, he had prepared for film production classes at UT by making a series of his own home movies. Family members were recruited as cast and crew. His three youngest siblings starred in “Bedhead” (1991), a 16 mm short film which was honored at many national and international festivals. Rodriguez also blossomed as a cartoonist at UT with “Los Hooligans,” a comic strip in the Daily Texan featuring characters based on his brothers and sisters.
Rodriguez went on to write, produce, direct and edit “Desperado” (1995), a sequel to “El Mariachi,” for Columbia. The film introduced American audiences to Antonio Banderas as a leading man, opposite Salma Hayek. Rodriguez also wrote, directed and edited “The Misbehavers” again starring Antonio Banderas in 1995, one of the four segments of Miramax Films' “Four Rooms.” He then teamed up with Quentin Tarantino on the outrageous “From Dusk Till Dawn” (1996) for Dimension Films. Rodriguez directed a cast including Tarantino, who wrote the script. He also edited the film and served as executive producer. Rodriguez's next directorial project was Dimension Films' “The Faculty”(1998) starring Josh Hartnett, Elijah Wood and Jordana Brewster.
In 2001, Robert fulfilled a lifelong dream and created the family adventure film. “Spy Kids,” a critically acclaimed and box office success, went on to break 100 million domestically. He followed that with “Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams,” which won rave reviews and “Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over,” which hit theaters July 25, 2003.
The third installment to the “El Mariachi” trilogy, “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” was released on September 12, 2003, which Robert shot, chopped and scored himself. He also served as writer of this film.
His upcoming movie, “The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3D” will be released June 10, 2005. He wrote it with his 7-year-old son, Racer Max.

Frank Miller (Director, Writer, Producer) makes his feature film directorial debut with SIN CITY. The film is based on Miller’s ongoing comic book series, which draws upon his love of film noir and pulp detective stories to create a dark gritty cityscape of clashing good and evil like no other.
Miller, creator of some of the world’s most popular comics, became a professional comics artist while still a teenager. Working on a variety of assignments for major publishers, including Gold Key, DC and Marvel, he first drew attention to his work on two issues of Marvel's Spectacular Spider-Man, in a story that teamed the ever-popular arachnid with another popular character, Daredevil. As a result of this assignment, a year later Frank was offered the regular penciling slot on Daredevil's own book. Soon after, Miller took over the writing chores on the title, and during a run of several years, in collaboration with inker Klaus Janson, they attracted a steadily- growing number of fans. It was during this period that Frank created the ninja assassin-for-hire Elektra, one of the characters with whom he is most strongly associated and to whom, along with Daredevil, he still periodically returns.
During the early 1980s, Frank Miller attracted further attention as one of the first comics freelancers who braved the field outside the comfortable world of company-owned characters with the creation of Ronin, a futuristic high-tech samurai pop adventure. It was the first of many collaborations with his painter Lynn Varley. Since then, Miller has worked, either alone or with other collaborators, on a number of notable projects, including Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (which many credit with generating the popular momentum that character enjoys to this day), Batman: Year One (illustrated by David Mazzuchelli), Elektra: Assassin (illustrated by Bill Sienkiewicz), Elektra Lives Again and the award-winning Martha Washington miniseries Give Me Liberty (illustrated by Dave Gibbons) and Hard Boiled (illustrated by Geof Darrow).
The Sin City books, his first solo venture, have garnered numerous awards, including two Harvey awards for Best Graphic Album of Original Work (1998) and Best Continuing Series (1996), and six Eisner Awards, including those for Best Writer/Artist, Best Graphic Novel Reprint, Best Cartoonist, Best Cover Artist, Best Limited Series, and Best Short Story.
In addition, Frank wrote the original story and screenplay for the feature film “Robocop 2,” as well as the third film in the series, now in post-production.


Elizabeth Avellan (Producer) co-founded Los Hooligans Production with Robert Rodriguez when the two began their first feature film project, “El Mariachi,” together in 1991. That film, which won the Audience Award at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival, launched her production career.
Since then, Elizabeth has produced numerous films and as Vice President of Troublemaker Studios, has played a primary role in developing Austin, Texas as a thriving film community. Avellan co-produced “Desperado,” written and directed by Rodriguez and starring Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek. She also co-produced “From Dusk Til Dawn,” written by Quentin Tarantino, directed by Rodriguez and starring George Clooney, Harvey Keitel and Juliette Lewis. In 1997, Avellan along with Pamela Cederquist and Rana Joy Glickman produced “Real Stories of the Donut Men,” a dark comedy, written and directed by Beeje Quick, which won the 1998 Best Comedy Feature at the Long Island Film Festival.
Avellan’s producing credits continued with “The Faculty,” written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Rodriguez, and the hit “Spy Kids” trilogy of popular family adventures. She also executive produced “In and Out of Focus,” a documentary about balancing motherhood and career in the film business. Most recently, Avellan produced Rodriguez’s “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” starring Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Johnny Depp and Mickey Rourke; and executive produced the Venezuelan thriller “Secuestro Express” directed by Jonathan Jakubowicz
Avellan was born in Caracas, Venezuela where her grandfather, Gonzalo Veloz, was the pioneer of commercial television. At the age of thirteen, she moved to Houston, Texas and later graduated from Rice University.

QUENTIN TARANTINO (Special Guest Director) was born in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1963 and named, fittingly enough, after a character on a TV show, the half-breed blacksmith Quint played by Burt Reynolds on Gunsmoke. When he was two, the future filmmaker's single mom moved with him to Orange County, California which was his home for the next two decades.

His neighborhood was a mixture of black and white, and he was exposed to a wide range of film and pop culture influences, including martial arts movies. Tarantino quit school at 17 to take acting classes and support himself with odd jobs. At 22 he found a second home of sorts at Video Archives in Manhattan Beach, where his voluminous knowledge of old movies finally began to come in handy. With co-workers Roger Avery and Jerry Martinez, Tarantino turned Video Archives into an impromptu film school. He began writing as a way to supply himself with practice scenes for his acting classes.
Partly out of frustration at the difficulty of setting up a “real movie” with an unknown writer attached to direct, Tarantino wrote “Reservoir Dogs” in 1991. Shot in less than a month on LA locations, with a standout cast that came to include Michael Madsen, Steve Buscemi, Tim Roth, Laurence Tierney, Chris Penn, and Tarantino himself in addition to Keitel, the film was a phenomenal success. Following that, both of the scripts he had been working on before “Dogs” quickly sold. They became “True Romance” (directed by Tony Scott) and ‘Natural Born Killers” (heavily re-written and directed by Oliver Stone).
1994's “Pulp Fiction” was a multi-layered, time-bending, crime fiction collage that wove the stories of several characters together with world-class narrative gusto. A 3-D chess game of a movie, “Pulp Fiction” restored the career of ‘70s icon John Travolta to its proper eminence, cemented the A-List movie-star status of actor Samuel L. Jackson, and launched Tarantino's working relationship with the performer he has since described as “my actress,” Uma Thurman.
After a three-year lay-off, Tarantino wrote and directed “Jackie Brown” in 1997, a crime caper movie based on Elmore Leonard's best-selling novel Rum Punch. Pam Grier garnered both Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations for her performance in the title role, and co-star Robert Forster was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor for his performance as a world-weary bail bondsmen.
Tarantino's first career goal was to become an actor, and he has continued to play roles in his own films and in the work of others. He was the thief known only as Mr. Brown in “Reservoir Dogs,” and the jittery Jimmie Dimmick, saddled with an unwanted fresh corpse, in “Pulp Fiction.” In his “Man From Hollywood” section of the anthology picture “Four Rooms,” Tarantino cast himself as a blow-hard movie director. He also played bandit George Clooney's loony brother, Richard Gecko, in Robert Rodriguez's “From Dusk Till Dawn,” the title role in Jack Baren's “Destiny Turns on the Radio” and appeared in Spike Lee's “Girl 6.”
With his production partner, Lawrence Bender, through their company A Band Apart Productions, Tarantino served as executive producer on October Film's “Killing Zoe” directed by Roger Avary. He also presented the 2001 domestic release of Master Yuen Wo Ping's 1993 martial arts classic “Iron Monkey” and served as executive producer of Reb Braddock's black comedy “Curdled” and of Julia Sweeny's concert film “God Said, 'HA!’”
During the four years that elapsed between the release of “Jackie Brown” and the production of “Kill Bill,” Tarantino was hard at work on a script for the forthcoming war movie, “Inglorious Bastards.”

K.N.B. EFX GROUP (Special Make-Up Effects)
The K.N.B. EFX Group previously handled the Special Effects Make-Up assignment on Quentin Tarantino's “Pulp Fiction,” Robert Rodriguez’s “From Dusk Till Dawn” and Tarantino’s recent “Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2.”
Formed in 1988 by ROBERT KURTZMAN, GREG NICOTERO, and HOWARD BERGER, when they were working together on Sam Raimi's “Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn,” the Kurtzman, Nicotero and Berger EFX Group (K.N.B.) has become the effects house of choice for astute genre directors such as George A. Romero (“Monkey Shines”), John Woo (“Hard Target”), John Carpenter (“Ghosts of Mars”) and Wes Craven (“Scream”).
Their most demanding assignments were providing alien creatures for Tim Burton's “Mars Attacks” and Barry Sonnenfeld's “Men in Black” and creating both the superhero and the super villain appliances for “Spawn,” an ambitious adaptation of Todd McFarlane's best selling comic book. They have also worked on James Cameron's “Aliens,” Steven Spielberg's “Amistad,” Rob Reiner's “Misery,” Don Coscarelli's “Bubba Ho-Tep” and Ang Lee's “The Hulk,” to name only a few. Most recently, they worked with George Romero on the forthcoming “Land of the Dead.”
Although most of their work is in features, KNB has also entered the television market, lending their talents to “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys ,” “Xena: Warrior Princess” and “The X-Files.”