At this year's Comic Con 2008, Sin City director Robert Rodriguez dished the dirt on his recently confirmed "presenting" involvement on the production of the new and upcoming comic-to-film adaptation of Red Sonja. Sitting with Rodruiguez was his latest flame, actress Rose McGowan, who will be playing Red Sonja, and Douglas Aarniokosi, who will be directing the project.

Here's a look back at a few memorable moments from the Rodriguez, McGowan, and Aarniokosi panel for Red Sonja...

Are you trying to match the feel of the De Laurentiis films or go for something entirely new?

ROBERT RODRIGUEZ: It’s entirely different. The Dino De Laurentiis film I was talking about was Barbarella, when I was working with them for Barbarella, and even that was going to be different from - No, this is Red Sonja darker, based more in the book and the actual comics. It’s not anything to do with the other movie. It’s not a sequel to the other movie that was made in the 80s...

ROSE MCGOWAN: I will not have a mullet. I’m just putting that out there.

RODRIGUEZ: We’re still discussing that.

When you were going to put another 10 minute cooking school on and what is your item going to be this time?

RODRIGUEZ: The next time in cooking school, as announced on Planet Terror, is going to be Texas Barbeque. It’s going to be JT’s secret recipe from Planet Terror. It’s going to be on the Grindhouse double-disc DVD, which I’ll talk about soon. Also, you know who asked me to do a cooking disc was Best Buy. They said, "Would you like to do ten minute cooking schools? We could do it as an exclusive at Best Buy. We really like these." I said, "Nah, I’ll just keep them for free on my DVDs."

What advice do you have for other independent artists who are coming up behind you? What kind of advice do you have for the drive?

RODRIGUEZ: Don’t sleep and keep the pedal to the metal. No, just whatever it is that you feel you have to do, go and do it. And love what you do when you’re doing it, while you’re doing it. No matter what job you have right now, because that may not be your passion, on the weekends go do what you really want to do. I found just by making movies, that was my passion, and I ended up working hard at it because I loved doing it and I ended up finding success in it. So try to steer yourself towards something that you have interest in.

DOUGLAS AARNIOKOSKI: And let me tell you, having been with Robert for 15 or so many years, always, always have a camera with you at all times. I mean, we’re driving down the road and he’s got a camera and he’s shooting us driving down the road. And I’m like, "Robert, what are we using these for?" And he’s like, "You never know." So just keep a camera with you at all times.

We always see on the DVDs later, the preparations these actors go into for the physical roles. I’m curious what you, Miss McGowan, are going to be undergoing now or undergoing soon to prepare for the role?

MCGOWAN: Right now I’ve been working out for about three hours a day, which is awesome. But... I start my official sword training and it’s Chad Stahelski...

AARNIOKOSKI: Yeah, Chad Stahelski, who also did the Matrix movies with Woo Ping, who also just finished the Wachowski’s ninja movie. He also worked on Speed Racer, 300 - I mean his team is unbelievable and they’re gonna put Rose through the ringer. She is gonna be a stud, even more so than she is now. When she gets out of this regiment, let me tell you.

MCGOWAN: Yeah, I don’t think I’m going to be allowed to wear a little Dolce and Gabbana dress, it’s borrowed, I’m just saying. Also, there’s going to be, at the opening of Casino Royale, which is such an amazing opening, is the free running. And by the top guy in America, I’m going to be trained to do that. And then add swords to it, so I’m beyond excited.

I was wondering about the progress on Sin City 2 and 3?

RODRIGUEZ: Frank has written a Sin City 2 script that’s really great and we’ve literally just been trying to figure out how we’re going to do it between our projects. But that’s just the gift that keeps on giving. That this is just always there and ready to go. He just showed me the script about three months ago, so hopefully I’ll run into him here at the Comic-Con or hear some news from him. But I know he’s got his movie going so soon we’ll be able to see what we’re going to do about that.

You mentioned that you’re going to do training for the role with sword fighting and stuff like that. Are you going to do your own stunts, too?

MCGOWAN: Oh yeah, absolutely. I have injuries going back, that are all now repaired, from Planet Terror and other movies. And I tend to have a Scrappy-Doo, the dog. You know, Scobby-Doo? And yes, I just compared myself to a dog. Awesome! That’ll look really great in print. I’m so happy that can just be taken out of context, sweet. But it’s kind of a, you know, of course I can do it. In Death Proof, the face being slammed against the plexi was mine and I almost shattered my cheekbone and had a nice concussion. But it wouldn’t have looked right without it and, of course, I kept saying, "Harder." The hydraulics had to hit harder. And then at the end I’m thinking, "Damn, you moron. I need my brain. I’m going to end up like a boxer, who’s basically a vegetable at 38." But yeah, absolutely. I train to do everything myself, as much as I possibly can. I mean, I would say it’s probably in the ninety percentile of stunts of my own that I did in Planet Terror and this is... Ah, it’s just going to be so great. Sorry I geek out on it. [laughs]

I was just wondering if you regret leaving the Director’s Guild or it’s been freeing at all? Or if it’s been an obstacle that you’ve had to overcome?

RODRIGUEZ: It was very freeing, of course. You’ve been let out of the box and you run free and you could do something like - I mean, they weren’t going to let - They have a rule book that says basically you only have one director, even if you have multiple directors. A lot of times they do on bigger movies, even have directors go and shoot with actors doing dialogue. But they want the illusion that there’s only one voice and one vision, which isn’t always true in collaborative filmmaking. People always say, "You do so many jobs yourself. Don’t you like to collaborate?" I love to collaborate. And when I tried it, I got penalized. So I had to quit to get Frank to be co-director.

Just to stick it to them, I went ahead and added Quentin. I made up a whole title, which is: "Special Guest Director, Quentin Tarantino", which is a title that doesn’t even exist. So I just made up my own titles and did whatever I wanted. It was just really bizarre at the time. But I could understand and told them, "Look, don’t change your rule book for me. I don’t quite fit and I do weird stuff anyway. I’ll just step out and that way you don’t have to change anything and everybody else can stick to the rules." But that’s why I’m only producing in name [on] this movie. And Doug is doing all of the directing, because I will be there doing some of the directing. Right, Doug?

AARNIOKOSKI: Absolutely. I’d have it no other way.

RODRIGUEZ: But no, it’s going to be great. We’ll have our steady-cams strapped on, back-to-back firing away. But no, I don’t have any regrets. So far it’s been good. If I want to do a studio movie, you do. It is what’s called financial core, where you just fall under the rules of the DGA. It’s all nonsense rule stuff.

I know you mentioned that you haven’t begun casting, but do you want to throw some rumor mill names out there for Conan?

RODRIGUEZ: Danny Trejo. [laughs] I’m surprised nobody has asked about Machete yet. My phone should be ringing any second... [voice of Danny] - "Robert, when are we going to make Machete? Everywhere I go people are asking, Machete, Machete, Machete. Hurry up, homez! I love you, call me."

Nobody has asked yet about Machete, so I will. What is the status and when did you decide to make it from that fake trailer to actually considering it for a feature film?

RODRIGUEZ: I had actually written it back in '93 when I first met Danny Trejo. I wrote a script called Machete and I stole, over the years, sequences from it. Like the scene from Once Upon a Time in Mexico where the couple is handcuffed and going down the side, that was from Machete. So when it came time for Quentin and I to make fake trailers, I thought I’m going to do a trailer for Machete. I already got the whole movie, so I wrote the trailer pretty quickly. It was one of those really backwards type of things where I’d written a script, shot the trailer, people loved the trailer, but now I've got to go shoot the movie and its sequels.

So I’m thinking we’re going to shoot Machete, put in a couple of fake trailers and that’s either going to be theatrical here, or just straight to video here and theatrical overseas and then do Part 2 and 3 as a double feature. So It would be Machete Kills and Machete Kills Again as a double feature on a second disc. Then you could have a triple pack in a short amount of time. That’s the plan. Danny would love that. Danny would be in heaven. So I have a Machete script and it’s just a matter of locking down these next couple of months.