‘Sin City’ video game goes straight to the source

Some films seem so perfect for converting to video games that one wonders why it never happened. Quentin Tarantino’s "Kill Bill," for example.

Or perhaps Frank Miller’s "Sin City." Imagine what a savvy publisher with experience in making great games from movies — like Electronic Arts or Activision — could do if it were able to enlist the images and voice acting of the 2005 film’s considerable talent, including Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Benicio Del Toro, Mickey Rourke and Elijah Wood?

But when the "Sin City" game hits store shelves around Christmas 2009, there will be no stars, no day-and-date marketing with the film’s sequel, "Sin City 2," and the publisher’s name on the box — Red Mile Entertainment — will be unknown to even the most hardcore gamers. Red Mile?

Indeed, the fledgling game maker has secured the rights not to either of the movies but to the seven graphic novels that comprised their source material, a strategy that even the company’s president and COO has a difficult time explaining.