Endless rumors have surrounded the possibility of a Sin City 2, the follow-up to Robert Rodriquez‘s wondfully stylized 2005 adaptation of Frank Miller‘s graphic novel of the same name. So much so that fans had all but given up hope that the sequel would actually ever happen. Today, rumor becomes fact.

Original director Rodriguez, along with Miller and producer Alexander Rodnyansky, have announced that they are ready to begin production on the sequel, which will be titled Sin City: A Dame To Kill For, through Rodriquez’s Quick Draw Productions and Rodnyansky’s AR Films, with Dimension Films handling domestic distribution.

Casting will begin on the project next week, with shooting expected to happen sometime this summer.

Filmmaker Robert Rodriguez appeared Yesterday at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival to give updates on several of his forthcoming projects, including the formation of his own studio for producing CGI-animated feature films called Quickdraw Animation. He also announced that he will be filming sequels to two of his previous hit movies this year.

Machete Kills, which we first announced here, will go into production in April and the long-delayed Sin City 2 is expected to film later this summer. In addition to those films Rodriguez also said that his animated Heavy Metal film finally has a finished script and is moving into the storyboard phase of pre-production, along with a family feature the director is hesitant to reveal the title because it would give away the concept.

Well, at least it looks like someone is working on this damn thing.

Best known for writing the script for Martin Scorsese‘s Oscar winner The Departed, writer William Monahan is working on a new draft for Robert Rodriguez‘s long-talked-about sequel, Sin City 2.

THR has the scoop, and this comes after Rodriguez revealed that the film may be shooting as early as later this year. Monahan is an immensely popular entity it appears, as it has also been announced that Monahan will be remaking the classic, The Gambler with none other than Scorsese himself.

Robert Rodriguez announced yesterday at San Diego Comic-Con 2011 that he is launching a new production company called Quick Draw. This company will work alongside Troublemaker to get his projects made. Troublemaker is his production company working within the studio system and Quick Draw will be his outlet for self-financed projects working outside the standard Hollywood system.

His first two projects coming from Quick Draw will be Sin City 2 and Machete 2. In a roundtable interview, Rodriguez shared that he really felt the need to finance and own his own projects after the Disney/Miramax split where neither the Weinsteins nor he himself owned his films. At this point the scripts for both films are nearly complete. Once he’s happy with the stories he’ll go right into production through Quick Draw, no waiting for money from Hollywood.

No one knows exactly how many times we’ve heard talk of a Sin City 2 happening by now. Clearly directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller — who also created the graphic novel — want to make this movie, but the big question has always been when they would actually stand up, buckle down, and get this bad boy going full-steam ahead.

The answer to this question is still unknown, but while speaking to MTV, Rodriguez made it pretty clear that it’s all about when everyone will have the time. We know Miller has gotten into directing his own films and that he’s been working on a story for a sequel to 300; while at the same time, Rodriguez has been plenty busy with Machete, producing Predators, and surely working on his own pile of prospective films.