Fox President Of Alternative Programming Mike Darnell To … 
FIRST BOX OFFICE: ‘Fast & Furious 6′ Easy … 
NBC Sets Oklahoma Tornado Benefit Concert For May 29 
Cannes: Directors’ Fortnight Honors ‘Les … 
SHOCKER: Tom Cruise Exits ‘Man From … 
A+E Rebuild: BBC’s Jana Bennett To Run Bio And LMN … 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Hannibal’ Hits Low, … 
‘Katie’ Shakeup: Rachel Miskowiec Replaces … 
Hammond On Cannes: French Hero Jerry Lewis On His Return To … 
Cannes: Another Jewelry Heist? $2.6M Necklace Missing After … 
Hammond On Cannes: Leo DiCaprio’s Moon Trip Tops … 
Specialty B.O. Preview: ‘Before Midnight’, … 
2012-2013 Season Network Rankings: CBS Sweeps In Final … 
Full 2012-2013 TV Season Series Rankings 
TOLDJA! Paramount Pocketing $190M From Disney For Marvel … 
‘Good Morning America’ Hits 19-Year Viewership … 
MGM Buys ‘Modern Family’ Producer Ben … 
‘Fashion Police’ Writers Chant On Picket Lines: … 
Universal Makes Seven-Figure Deal For ‘The School For … 
Steven Soderbergh Will Interrupt Retirement To Direct And … 
Cannes: EOne Announces Itself As Player In U.S. … 
Luke Y Thompson is covering the Con for Deadline:
SUNDAY AM UPDATE: I think the biggest news of the Marvel Studios panel tonight is that The Punisher is now owned by Marvel Studios again, and will probably figure into a future film. I’ve learned The Punisher rights reverted to Marvel in 2009 following the release of Punisher 2. The studio has no immediate plans to develop a movie based on the franchise. Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige last night did not say when the Punisher rights reverted, or how: just that they have.
So who is The Punisher? In the comics, Frank Castle is a Vietnam veteran whose family is killed in a Mafia crossfire. Donning a black spandex costume with a skull logo, he declares war on crime and becomes a vigilante. Introduced as a Spider-Man foe in the 1970s, his popularity took off in the late 1980s, when grim and “realistic” superheroes became the norm. The Punisher is different from many superheroes in that he uses guns and has no secret identity. (He is known to be Frank Castle.) On film, he has been portrayed three times.
In 1989, Roger Corman’s New World made a movie starring Dolph Lundgren as the Punisher. He did not have the traditional costume or skull logo, but the role was a departure for Lundgren, who played the character as deranged. Initially set for a theatrical release, it wound up going direct to video, despite the character’s popularity at the time.
In 2004, with Marvel movies on the rise, The Punisher was rebooted with Thomas Jane in the lead. Jane, who is a comic book fan, and well-liked by other fans, researched the role heavily, hanging out at gun shows. John Travolta played villain Howard Saint. Though many fans liked Jane’s portrayal, the movie was still goofy and overlong, and the costume consisted mainly of a T-shirt with the skull on it.
In 2008, a sequel of sorts was made. Jane bowed out, and director Lexi Alexander was rumored to have lost control. Nonetheless, this was my favorite Punisher movie by far, with Ray Stevenson playing him as a slasher villain with guns, who defends against even worse villains. He didn’t quite get the costume, but the skull logo was still there. The movie bombed, despite being the truest adaptation to date.
While the last two were released by Lionsgate, the Punisher is fair game for future Marvel universe movies. This means you likely won’t see him as a Spider-Man foe (Sony has those rights). But you could see him fighting, say, the Hulk.
Chances are it won’t be Ray Stevenson who plays him again, even though he’s good and would likely come cheap.
Loading ...
Stevenson made a fine Punisher, but I doubt Marvel would even consider him for the role again since he plays Volstagg (part of the Warriors Three) in their upcoming ‘Thor.’
They have Chris Evans playing 2 Marvel heroes. I doubt they care about such things.
Chris Evans played Human Torch for Fox, not Marvel. Dumbass.
The problem with making a movie about The Punisher is that the story is the same as every violent, grade Z vigilante/revenge movie every made. The character surged to popularity in the late 80s and died out after a couple of years. I don’t see why we have to keep bringing him back to the big screen.
No doubt.
Another property Gale Anne Hurd continues to beat in the ground…
I’m pretty sure the Dolph Lundgren version was the best of the bunch. Should’ve stopped while they were ahead.
The Punisher worked great in the comics, is still a fan fave, and is quite likely poised for a comeback (because we are moving back to a gritty, crime-ridden, 1970′s stagnation environment where violent criminals skate).
What is the Punisher? A guy with guns who kills people? Nope. He’s an ordinary guy without any superpowers who is sick of violent criminals skating so he kills them. And THAT sets him right up against: Daredevil, Captain America, the Hulk, Iron Man, and all the rest who pointedly, don’t kill people.
And that is the Punisher. He’s Joe Average flipping the bird, right in their faces, to the powerful superheroes. He’s Batman taken to the next level, his only limit being that he won’t hurt or kill innocent people.
Which makes him interesting but only around the superpowered. He’s exhibit A of the superpowered failure to set things right (which is why he was “created” by the slaughter of his family) and an interesting conflict. He’s not a villain. He’s not a hero. The heroes even sympathize with him a bit, but he’ll caustically demonstrate that when they simply jail some bad guy, its ordinary people who suffer when they inevitably break out.
The character’s popularity peaked in the mid 1990′s, fell down in the late 1990′s, and has been used poorly since then (WHY isn’t the Punisher killing Jihadis/bin Laden? Oh yeah, lack of GUTS by the comic book publishers).
Again, the key to comic book characters is not guns, or costumes, or powers, but the emotional conflicts and larger cultural points they bring out. Having the Punisher back for Marvel Studios means they can use him to “fix” some of the damage sure to be inflicted by the Avengers movie. With the Punisher as a foil to highlight the heroism of the main characters.
[As for every "violent, grade Z revenge movie ever made," that would include: Death Wish, Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, Yojimbo, Last Man Standing, High Plains Drifter, Pale Rider, Unforgiven, and a whole lot more. Popular and classic movies, which will be remembered long after "the Reader" is forgotten.]
The character is an emotional cold fish, I just don’t see the depth there like you do.
I think Nikki might need to have us check our pens at the door.
The last two Punisher movies were beyond awful. Stevenson and Jane were terrible choices for the role. If they ever make another Punisher movie it should be in the vain of Man on Fire, Taken or Payback. A gritty movie that takes the character seriously not the garbage joke that Lexi Alexander and Jonathan Hemsliegh made of the character.
“The Punisher” is to dark for mainstream movie goers, it may be better to try it as a series on HBO or Showtime.
These are big budget films that appeal to middle aged men who collected these comics as kids and I am one, but after watching the Hulk a few years back it finally dawned on me I had outgrown this stuff and it seemed so silly. I literally fell asleep in the theater. So my question is; who watches these films and how many of them can the market sustain before the bubble bursts? One or two every couple of years seems right but this is looking like an avalanche with Thor, Avengers, Luke Cage, etc. I just don’t see it.
Iron Man made something like over $500 million domestic and foreign, so the idea that they appeal to middle aged men is not supported by the evidence. Spider-Man, Batman made even more. 300 made a ton of money considering its low production budget.
Comic book movies are simply the only Action Movies appealing to MEN and BOYS that Hollywood will let itself make. When John Wayne, or Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger were tearing up the screen and bad guys, the comic book movies were crowded out. There wasn’t any need because you had guy-oriented action / hero movies.
Yes the Hulk was a crummy movie. Angst Lee had about as much feel for the material as Quentin Tarantino has for Jane Austen. Does that make Jane Austen garbage?
Comic books (classic ones) offer the following:
1. A story, characters, and situation done by “classic” pulp writers like Jack Kirby, Gardener Fox, Stan Lee, Siegel and Schuster, Bob Kane, who lived before the metrosexual, moral relativism, feminist, gay-friendly era of today and so could write adventure stories for boys to men, spanning a wide age range.
2. Characters who are colorful and already liked and form the basis for merchandising, which is often 4X gross box office receipts world-wide. Iron Man toys probably outsell Avatar toys, and thats no surprise. Iron Man was created for a visual but limited medium, for boys, and not adults. Every kid who played with legos could imagine himself as Iron Man. A furry blue cat, not so much.
3. Decades (sometimes 60 years plus) of characters, situations, and plotlines that readers loved. Its pre-tested. Follow the core of the story and you can’t go wrong.
How long will this last? Fairly long. Because Hollywood can’t put say, Shia La Boeuf as “Hairdresser: the Revenge” and make money. Films that make money (mostly in merchandising) are needed to support “the Reader” or “the Roman Polanski story” since rest assured, those lose money.
Hollywood is so metrosexualed, so gay/feminist friendly, they can’t even make their own: Road House, Red Dawn, or Robocop, and have to try and remake them. This is why they’ve turned to comic book movies. Not the least of which, is the character and costume can often supply the needed masculinity.
I don’t understand why filmmakers have failed to get this character right. The last version, while truest to the comics, was played as a day-glo, over-the-top buffoon show. They need to look at films like “Death Wish” and “Dirty Harry” and the recent James Wan film “Death Sentence” and go for the tone of THOSE films. Maybe then we’ll finally get a good Punisher film.
I’m sorry, but after THREE failed films, might we begin to consider the possibility that the Punisher is just not a character that’s going to translate well to the film medium? Any Punisher film has to be rated R to even remotely resemble the tone of the comics, but there aren’t enough people over the age of 17 who would go to see a Punisher movie in theaters. His story is tragic, with no romance and only the blackest humor. There’s no four-quadrant appeal like they’ve accomplished with Iron Man and Spider-Man. Even a really great Punisher movie wouldn’t break even– the most it could hope for would be to become a cult hit in college circles.
The films were not so good but I blame that on direction and the script.
Loved Punisher: War Zone. Very underrated action flick. Stevenson was the best by far. Hope they give the character another shot.
This is good news for Marvel. Hope they cast Johnny Messner as the Punisher for the reboot.
Forget Stevenson. He was a lousy choice as was Lexi.
Give Michael Marcus Nipsel or Michael Mann a shot at it.
The sad part is Lionsgate had to utttery FUBAR Punisher in order for them to decide that they should give the film rights back to it’s rightful copyright owner.
Sadly this will be the only way Marvel gets back the rights to Spider-Man, Fantastic Four or Wolverine.
Even if Disney decides to put some major muscle and effort behind it.
Stevenson was pretty robbed by how his movie was handled and assembled. He was fine casting even though the movie ended up a mess. A more competent realization of the same ingredients without the tone deaf marketing of that movie would have probably made a decent entry.
The character was near-completely reinvented in the 80s as mentioned above. Originally he was an extreme vigilante with no tolerance for breaking the law at any level (i.e. he’d mow someone down for running a red light). The whole anti-hero thing came later and did give a few decent stories and some great artwork along the way but it’s silly that after 3 tries Hollywood still hasn’t made a movie version that people have been able to embrace.
Make a TV version in cable. It could work.
that last punisher movie with stevenson got my first ever half star. so yeah, thats what i think about your appraisal. my favorite is still dolph’s but thomas jane’s wasn’t nearly a travesty as stevenson’s was.
Actually War Zone was a reboot, not a sequel. While it was the best of the three films, it still left a lot to be desired and took a comical approach to the villains.
The Punisher is really not a hard character to get right. You need to have a solid story and then build some amazing action sequences around it. Hopefully, the next Punisher film will have a big budget. It’s sad that your average video-game based movie has better action than one based on an incredibly popular character.
So I’m guessing the next Punisher movie will be released by Disney/Marvel or Touchstone/Marvel – which means we might as well forget about it being R-rated. Disney seems done with those, even when the film is released under a different banner.
Lexi Alexander (the director) totally rewrote the last one… even though she’s not a fucking writer. More director’s need to do their jobs and stop trying to do everybody else’s. Such a talentless hack.
The Punisher: War Zone was the best out of all three Punisher movies by far. Stevenson played a great kick ass Punisher and the movie had a great villain. If you haven’t seen it yet I’m sure you can buy the movie for cheap somewhere.
Punisher: War Zone was actually a lot of fun and very true to the character’s roots. Unfortunately, it was only a lot of fun for anyone with fond memories of the character’s past.
Today kids have grown up in a climate where it’s perfectly acceptable for them to like comic books and superhero films. Yet they also think it’s a genre that should always be portrayed “realistically”- even when the subject matter is inherently absurd.
For example, if you really wanted to make a “realistic” movie about someone like Bruce Wayne becoming a vigilante, the whole idea of a “Batman” would be the first thing to go. Sorry, but no one that runs around in a cape is going to strike fear into the hearts of ruthless criminals. The natural instinct would be to kick the guy’s goofy ass. (It’s interesting that in all of the “grounded” superhero films, none of the characters have apparently ever read or encountered a comic book.)
Of course, Punisher is the rare character that actually could be played entirely straight, but doing so would also mean missing the point entirely. The joy in reading The Punisher was never a realization that “Hey, this could really happen!” It was always in seeing what outrageous levels of overkill he could reach in dispatching the villains.
You don’t want to see Frank Castle quietly knife a bodyguard, then cleanly shoot a crime boss and escape without a trace. You want to see how inventive he can get with a rocket launcher and maybe a little napalm. Lexi Alexander understood this about the property, even though she approached it as if making a film for an early 1990s audience.
Kevin Durand should be the new Punisher. He looks the part — the dude is tall and ripped — and he’s got the acting chops. Perfect casting.
Here, here. Great idea.
Now Marvel can make their own failure of a Punisher movie.
I don’t understand the hate for the 2004 Thomas Jane pic at all. It was a throwback to the era of 70′s and 80′s revenge pics, and a thousand times better than that 2008 splatter-porn garbage.
The Punisher Comics under the Max label and the Ennis’ Punisher stuff in general are great, but not really the kind of stories that are blockbuster material. And they shouldn’t.
They frakked up the Punisher twice on the big screen and I’m kinda wary about a third try…
stop dicking around and give the fans what they want. Sub-track star power actors- stupid kids in the plot and love interest- and ADD kick ass fight/action scenes – TNA-and the fucking skill on costume. Pay a good action director and decent writer to give us a cool 80′s action movie with a 2010 feel.
Hmmm… lets see here. Marvel gets the rights to “The Punisher.” So we can possibly look forward to seeing the logo read; from Walt Disney Pictures and Marvel Studios comes “The Punisher.” Rated PG-13. Epic fail.
For what it’s worth, it was the post-Roger Corman New World Pictures, run by an investment group and producer Donald Borchers, that attempted the first PUNISHER adaptation. Marvel Comics had in fact invested heavily in the company hoping to do essentially the same thing they are doing now – they also produced two TV movie followups to THE INCREDIBLE HULK with Bill Bixby reprising the role, and initially had the rights to the misbegotten and long-shelved BRENDA STARR movie with Brooke Shields.
To correct the record, Roger Corman sold New World Pictures in the early 80′s and had no involvement in the initial Punisher production.