Though it’s tough to take director Robert Rodriguez at his word given how many times we’ve been promised that Sin City 2 is “right around the corner” over the past few years, he’s finally making good on two follow-ups this summer: Machete Kills and Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.  With production looming closer on both films, the first promo posters have now gone online.  Rodriguez will first shoot the Machete sequel Machete Kills this month, which finds Danny Trejo returning as the murderous Mexican.  Other returning actors include Michelle Rodriguez and Jessica Alba, who will be joined by newcomers Mel Gibson, Demian Bichir, Amber Heard, and recent addition Sofia Vergara.  Then, Rodriguez will finally shoot the Sin City follow-up, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.  Hit the jump for more.

We’ve reported on a new casting story for Robert Rodriguez’s sequel Machete Kills every day for the past three days, so to send you out for the weekend on a high note today’s addition is the lovely Sofia Vergara.  Variety reports that the Modern Family star is in talks to play “the leather-clad Madame Desdemona, whose Mexican heriots have information that Machete needs.”  And with that casting choice, Rodriguez has sewn up a solid opening weekend.

Danny Trejo returns as the titular Machete, joined by Michelle Rodriguez and Jessica Alba reprising their roles from the first film.  The story finds Machete “recruited by the U.S. government to take down a cartel leader and stop an arms dealer from launching a deadly missile.”  Mel Gibson is onboard as the villainous arms dealer, while Demian Bichir and Amber Heard round out the other newcomers that have signed on so far.  Production begins this month, after which Rodriguez will shoot the long-awaited Sin City sequel, Sin City: A Dame to Kill For.

We’ve got a couple of casting stories to report this afternoon.  First up, director Robert Rodriguez continues to fill out the cast for his sequel Machete Kills, and it appears that Amber Herd (The Rum Diary) will be taking on a femme fatale role.  Variety reports that Herd will play “a manipulative assassin code-named Miss San Antonio,” which I can only assume refers to her jaw-dropping beauty.  Dangerous beauty, apparently.  Danny Trejo is returning as the titular murderous Mexican, with Jessica Alba and Michelle Rodriguez reprising their roles from the first film as well.  As for newcomers, Mel Gibson and Demian Bichir are poised to join the franchise’s second outing.

Hit the jump for casting news regarding the drag-racing biopic Snake & Mongoose.

Many were surprised, yet pleased, when Demian Bichir’s named appeared among last year’s Oscar nominees for Best Actor.  He’s been doing great work for years, but he was singled out for his fantastic performance in the drama A Better Life.  As one can surmise, an Oscar nomination leads to plenty film offers, and now it appears that Bichir has settled on a duo of projects to shoot in the near future: Robert Rodriguez’s sequel Machete Kills and William Friedkin’s thriller Trapped.  Furthermore, Bichir was apparently very much in the mix for the villain role in the Star Trek sequel that eventually went to Benedict Cumberbatch.  Hit the jump for more.

Movies keep trying to kill Michelle Rodriguez, but luckily she keeps finding a way to come back.  Rodriguez is set to return in two sequels: one, a true sequel in Machete Kills and one, the sixth installment in the Fast and the Furious franchise.  As for director Robert Rodriguez’s sequel, Michelle Rodriguez will reprise her role as Luz, the leader of an illegal immigrant aid movement known as the Network.  She’ll be starring alongside Mel Gibson who recently joined the cast.

The Fast and the Furious 6, which will feature the directorial return of Justin Lin (Fast Five) and, perhaps more importantly, the return of Rodriguez’s character, Letty, something that was teased at the end of the previous film.  Shooting next month, The Fast and the Furious 6 also stars Dwayne Johnson, Gina Carano, Jordana Brewster and, of course, Vin Diesel. Hit the jump for more, including details on Gibson’s role in Machete Kills.

Director Robert Rodriguez pulled no punches when he said he wanted star power, in the form of Michelle Williams and Mel Gibson, for his sequel, Machete Kills.  It looks like half of that wish is about to come true.  Gibson is reportedly in serious negotiations to join the Machete sequel in a supporting role.  The original starred Danny Trejo in the title role as a former Mexican Federale, but it also featured a number of co-stars that diluted Trejo’s presence on screen, notably Robert De Niro, Jessica Alba, Michelle Rodriguez, Steven Seagal and Lindsay Lohan. This time around, the cast may be smaller since Rodriguez is juggling director duty between Machete Kills and Sin City 2: A Dame to Kill For. Hit the jump for more, including commentary from Rodriguez regarding his schedule and where his directing loyalties lie.

Yesterday, we reported that directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller had finally secured financing for Sin City 2 (officially titled Sin City: A Dame to Kill For), and filming was scheduled to begin this summer.  As you may recall, Rodriguez also has another sequel in the works: Machete Kills.  Back in February, we reported that the plot had Machete (Danny Trejo) “taking down a madman cartel leader and an eccentric billionaire arms dealer who has hatched a plan to spread war across the planet with a weapon in space.”

Hit the jump for more on Machete Kills.

Given that the festival takes place in his home city, it’s no surprise that filmmaker Robert Rodriguez took part in the 2012 SXSW Film Festival. Rodriguez took the opportunity to provide another update on his production company Quickdraw Productions and the many projects he currently has in development. In addition to touting the launch of Quickdraw Animation (two animated feature films, Heavy Metal and a family film, are already in development), Rodriguez gave a status report on the long-promised Sin City 2 and the Machete follow-up Machete Kills, saying both projects are poised to go into production this year. Hit the jump for more.

A promo poster for Robert Rodriguez‘ Machete sequel, Machete Kills, has popped up online.  Unfortunately, Machete was a massive disappointment and I’m wary of a sequel, which is part two in a planned trilogy; the finale will be Machete Kills Again.  Machete misunderstood what a gritty B-movie was supposed to be, gussied it up with movie stars, used a bloated storyline to accommodate all of them, and its biggest crime was making Machete (Danny Trejo) a supporting character in his own movie.  Hopefully, Machete Kills will be leaner and trust Trejo to carry the flick.  The plot has Machete tasked to “take down a madman cartel leader and an eccentric billionaire arms dealer who has hatched a plan to spread war across the planet with a weapon in space.”  So…space weapons and global war…that’s leaner, right?

Hit the jump to check out the promo poster.  Filming on Machete Kills is set to begin filming in April.

While director Robert Rodriguez has been touting 2010’s Machete as the first in a planned trilogy for quite some time now, I wasn’t exactly holding my breath for the franchise to come to fruition. This past August, Rodriguez said he was waiting on scripts for both Sin City 2 and Machete 2, and now it looks like the latter is geared up and ready to go. Rodriguez is readying Machete Kills with producer Alexander Rodnyansky, and star Danny Trejo is currently in talks to wield his machete once again. Hit the jump for more, including the storyline for Machete Kills.

Director Robert Rodriguez was back in full-force at Comic-Con this week for a Hall H panel regarding all of his upcoming projects, as well as his new production company QuickDraw Studios. The director gave updates on Machete sequels, Sin City 2, Heavy Metal, a new Frank Frazetta museum in Austin, TX, and more. Hit the jump for my recap of the panel.

A few days ago, I got to speak with Robert Rodriguez in Austin, Texas as I was visiting the set of Predators – along with a number of online journalists.  While a strict embargo prevents me from saying anything about that film, we’ve been given permission to run stories on other projects.  Since Robert Rodriguez is busy developing other movies, we got him to give us updates on Sin City 2, Machete, and what’s up with the next Spy Kids movie.

Regarding Spy Kids, Rodriguez says he’s already turned in the script to the Weinstein Company and it’s a reboot that will be shot in March or April with new kids.  On Machete, he says he’s “always talked about making him a franchise character”.  Meaning he’s like to do sequels.

Of course the news everyone wants to know is what’s up with Sin City 2.  Like he’s done in the past, he wouldn’t give us any specifics regarding when the film is going in front of the cameras.  But he did reveal “there has been a script since 2007″ and it has pre-existing material “with some original stuff added to it to kind of catch yourself up with some characters.”

Rodriguez also said, “I know Frank (Miller) wants to do it I know I wanna do it and its always sort of time permitting kind of thing, but its not like I can tell you definitely we’re starting…its not my next picture…I know that. Doesn’t mean that its not the picture right after because that’s still a possibility.”  Much more after the jump:

The other day I got to talk with Danny Trejo on the set of Predators along with a number of other online journalists.  While we are embargoed from talking about Predators, we’re allowed to cover other projects.

As most of you know, Danny recently shot Machete with director Robert Rodriguez.  The film is based on the trailer that was featured in Grindhouse and it’s loaded with an all star cast like Robert De Niro, Steven Seagal, Michelle Rodriguez, Jessica Alba, Lindsay Lohan, Don Johnson, and Rose McGowan.

So when we talked to him about Machete, he talked about what it was like to work with such an all star cast and he confirmed the rumors that it might be getting released this April.  Also, when we asked him if Machete was a one off or did he think there could be sequels, Trejo replied, “we want Machete, Machete Kills, and Machete Kills Again.  Every time I text him, he’ll text me back, Machete 2, coming up.”  While those titles might be jokes between Trejo and  Rodriguez, I kind of like them and hope they’re real.

Hit the jump for everything he said on Machete.