This is what you get for listening to lying lawyers.

Last week, IESB announced that The Weinstein Company had let the rights to Sin City 2 expire by waiting out the expiration clause on whatever contract they had. Which is odd, because Sin City 2 is basically well-known actors on green screen sets that would probably be in 3D this day and age. To me, that sounds like a movie that is fairly easy to fund and is almost guaranteed a profitable return.

But, having read IESB’s report, I didn’t post on it because TWC got their lawyer out and started flatly denying that the rights had lapsed. Bert Fields, professional lawyer, also said: “Any suggestion to the contrary is complete hogwash.”

Well, let’s hogwash away…

From THR:

The sequel rights to “Sin City,” Frank Miller’s popular noir comic, are being shopped around Hollywood, in what appears to be a sign that Dimension Films has lost rights to the property.

The Weinstein Co./Dimension continue to maintain that they hold the rights to any sequel for the Robert Rodriguez film, which grossed $159 million worldwide when it came out in 2005.

But producers say they have been shopped the rights by reps for Miller’s estate, who they say are seeking a new place to set up a potential follow-up.

If the Weinsteins’ option did lapse, it could have happened for reasons ranging from development inactivity to a decision not to pay to re-up. Sequel rights generally require a certain amount of activity within a defined period to remain with the original rights holder, though in many deals those periods stretch much longer than the four years that have elapsed since the original “Sin City” came out.

Basically: WTF Weinstein Company? Are you just going to let your most valued properties quietly walk away?

Or, and this is called the “benefit of the doubt,” maybe there’s something else going on here. Could Miller be pitching because TWC needs a partner? Or because TWC is going under? There are other options, but know that sometimes executives can be idiots, it looks like TWC just lost Sin City 2 in the court of public opinion.