Mickey Rourke vital to 'Sin City: A Dame to Kill For,' says Frank Miller

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez say Mickey Rourke is vital to the Sin City film series.

The 61-year-old actor first appeared as Marv in Sin City (2005), the original adaptation of Miller's graphic novel series. Rourke will reprise the character in sequel Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, and co-directors Miller and Rodriguez praised the actor in an interview with Moviefone ahead of the film's premiere.

"He is part of the heart and soul of what Sin City is," Miller declared. "It's hard to imagine Sin City without Marv."

Marv starred in the first Sin City comic The Hard Goodbye, and appeared in Silent Night, Just Another Saturday Night and A Dame to Kill For. The character cuts an imposing figure at 7 feet tall with a heavily scarred face, and does not hesitate to use his strength in fights or torture.

"The first book is the one where he dies," Rodriguez detailed. "Then he's in all the other books because they're prequels. So it's always cool to see him show up because it's like, 'Oh, this must have happened before that one.' So we wanted to be true to that -- to see [Roarke as Marv] show up and stick him in all the stories."

Rourke underwent an hours-long makeup process to transform into Marv for the first Sin City film, and Rodriguez said they reduced the time to 45 minutes to entice the actor to return for the sequel.

"He was in and out of there pretty quick," the director related. "It was just hard getting him back because on the first [film] he kind of got abused. It went on longer than it should have, and it was just him, there were no other actors. It wasn't like we could give him a break. So it was little rough."

Sin City: A Dame to Kill For opens in theaters Friday.