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 [which just announced major restructuring] 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 [now former] president and COO has a difficult time explaining.

"It's just one of those calls you have to make in the games industry," says Glenn Wong, previously president of Electronic Arts Canada, arguably the world's largest video game studio. "We decided that the 'Sin City' graphic novels, with their dark images and nonlinear stories, would work better as the basis for an interactive game. We don't have to track the linear movie screenplay and try to translate it into a game; we prefer to create an original story based on the characters from the books which, we think, will make for a longer, deeper video game experience."

It doesn't hurt, of course, that it's far less expensive to license the books than the movies, but Wong claims that didn't enter into the equation. "We wanted to go back to the source material instead of the filtered version that people saw on the big screen," he says.

Wong recognizes that, in making that call, he foregoes the one-two marketing punch associated with releasing a game day-and-date with its cinematic counterpart. After all, a simultaneous release might have been easily arranged since "Sin City 2" is currently in preproduction and is scheduled to hit theaters sometime next year. And one of its directors -- "Sin City" creator, author, and artist Frank Miller -- is the game's licensor.

"This is going to be an interesting challenge for us," Wong observes. "We want to appeal to the many faithful fans of the graphic novels and, at the same time, attract the movie audience. We'd like to think that we'll be able to capitalize on whatever awareness of 'Sin City' is generated by the second film. But, frankly, I don't even know when that's scheduled to be released."

Wong says he is simply elated that his company was able to secure the rights to the "Sin City" game. After all, Sausalito, Calif.-based Red Mile Entertainment, which opened its doors in 2006, only has a few games under its belt, including "Jackass: The Game" and "Crusty Demons: The Game." Indeed that may have been the reason why Miller licensed Red Mile; Wong says his company is so small that practically its entire focus is on the one game. "If we were a megapublisher -- and I recall building 35 games a year when I was at EA -- the 'Sin City' game would be just one property competing internally with many others."