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In one of the last big drama deals this buying season, Fox has handed a put pilot commitment to The Punisher, a series based on the Marvel comic from Ed Bernero and ABC Studios. This is one of two high-profile sales for former Criminal Minds showrunner Ed Bernero. He also has high-concept Western spec The Eye set up at ABC.
The Punisher is described as an hour-long procedural with a Marvel signature and a new take on one of the comic book giant’s iconic characters, Frank Castle, a rising star detective with the New York Police Department who moonlights as the vigilante Punisher, seeking justice for those the system has failed. Bernero will executive produce along with Marvel. This marks the first sale this season and the first one ever outside of ABC for Disney-owned Marvel, which is developing TV series based on its properties through ABC Studios. Last season, the company set up Hulk with Guillermo del Toro and David Eick and AKA Jessica Jones with Melissa Rosenberg at ABC. Those projects have been moving on a slower development track at the network. This marks ABC-affiliated ABC Studios’ second high-profile sale to Fox this season, following another put pilot commitment for the Shonda Rimes-produced 1980s dramedy Wildwood. It also is part of Fox’s return to the comic book adaptation business after the recent cancellation of Human Target. In addition to The Punisher, Fox has in the works The Spectre, a drama based on the DC Comics superhero character co-created by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and Bernard Baily.
As for Bernero’s other project, The Eye at ABC, it is a Western with a paranormal twist set in 1871 Arizona and centered on a team of Pinkerton Detectives who search for answers to unexplained phenomena. After a long tenure as showrunner of Criminal Minds and its spinoff, UTA-repped Bernero has recently focused on development through his ABC Studios-based Bernero Prods run by Rob Kim. Last year, he created and executive produced the ABC/ABC Studios drama pilot Partners.
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Finally! PUNISHER is much more of a natural for TV than films.
Ed is an amazing talent and mentor. He deserves everything coming his way!
Sounds DEXTER-y
The Punisher is a character with over 35 years of history. So far the movie endeavor have been wasted opportunities. In the hands of someone who is a real fan and is willing to borrows conception from great TV crime dramas like The Sopranos, The Wire, and The Shield. We may have a winner right here.
As for the Dexter comparison. Please, Face the writers and producers have been running that show down hill for some time. They already admitted that they don’t care for critic of fan critism.So expect Dexter get even mediocre.
Don’t get your nerd boy panties in a bunch George. I realize Punisher has been around for years. It’s not like some obscure secret nerd boy premise. I was simply stating that as a procedural and a cop moonlighting as vigilante, it’s DEXTER-y. Which I’m not saying is a bad thing, probably a smart way to have the character exist on tv. Now calm down or I’ll have to hang you from a flag pole.
THE PUNISHER has nothing whatsoever to do with DEXTER. Your comparison is laughable.
I was referring to the format of the proposed series you half wit.
I’ve been a Punisher fan forever, but yes, the whole concept of a vigilante cop if pretty much Dexter. The Punisher comic if very unique, this proposed show however is very little difference to Dexter.
This is a fail at Fox, it needs the freedom of a channel like HBO.
Right, Punisher can only succedd on HBO or Showtime. If it ends up on Fox it will end up getting cancelled because it won’t have the freedom to be a bad ass show.
I’d be happy with either a MAX version or a version that takes place in the cinematic universe.
Should be on cable, not network tv
Punisher would be a great show. But a cop who moonlights as a vigilante is not the Punisher! They should keep him as a Nam vet and set the story in the eighties…
It could work if Fox is willing to give the writers and producer creative space like they do on cable. People think cable programing works because of it explicit content. It really works because the writer are allowed to say more with lot depth and exploration.
The concept so far seems simplistic. It could go something like. Frank Castle is a good Detective with a family. With this psychopathic alter ego which he unleashes as the punisher. The first two season will probably play like an origin story. Eventually his alter ego will be discovered and criminals will seek revenge on him and his family. Then will see how his alter ego has compromised his life. He will go deeper into his punisher alter ego. With some good writing it could work. Just as long it tries to be a complex procedural.
yea that’ll work…………not
Sounds like a horrible idea. Can’t do a show violent enough to please the fans on Fox, the character is extremely unlikable with few redeeming characteristics, which will limit its appeal on TV, and having him have a secret identity as a cop who kills people by night is just goofy. The great thing about The Punisher is that he’s never bothered to hide his identity because he doesn’t HAVE an identity outside of shooting criminals.
This is THE CAPE, but without a stretchy cape. I know which show I’m going to bet on in Vegas to be the first series canceled next year. Oh, wait, it’ll never make it to series, and probably never even get filmed. Put pilot penalties here we come!
^110% Agree.
The only reason they’re making him a cop is so that he can have a “supporting cast” something which he mostly lacks in the comics. He’s usually a loner. There’s no girlfriend, no teenage sidekick, no mom or dad, no nothing. Just him and lots and lots of bullets and dead criminals.
The stark, black & white world he lives in (you’re either guilty or innocent) doesn’t make for today’s TV which – in shows like The Sopranos and the Wire – deals in moral ambiguities.
Making him a cop? That’s a cop-OUT.
FX would better but I’ll settle for fox
Sounds neutered from the get-go; The Punisher is not and never was a cop. I’d be more interested if it were FX and not FOX because I think it’d be a good fit with Sons of Anarchy and Justified, etc.
I wonder if Ray Stevenson will be interested in reprising the role.
You’re retarded bro… The writers don’t give a dhit what you think. Neither will THE Punisher folks. Get a hobby.
Frank Castle has just been emasculated. Looks like FOX hasn’t learned anything from their screw-up/screw over of Human Target [the fans wanted more Guerrero so what did FOX give them? Two female characters and 30% LESS Guerrero!].
D’OH!
Yeah. Sounds like a significant dilution of what makes the brand appealing in the first place. Vietnam vets might not be in vogue anymore, but the conversion of Punisher to cop always smacks of lazy, moral majority genericism. Would be a mistake to use it as anything more than a means to an end (like the not-too-bad Thomas Jane vehicle).
Can’t ignore the mismatch of channel to product, either.
In keeping with the tradition of superhero adaptations on television, can’t help but expect to get something utterly generic and forgettable, or at the very least, a significant step down from the colourful original.
Based on the description above, this is going to be a lifeless, pedestrian piece of crap. I would suggest that FOX pick a few copies of Punisher MAX, hand this off to FX instead and stick to canon.
Sounds like the Punisher is about to have yet another live action failure.
Recall, SHAFT had a decent television run back in the 80s. The creators were able to translate the street savvy, hardcore John Shaft (“Shut your mouth!”) from R-Rated Blaxploitation movies to family friendly CBS detective procedural. I’m curious to see how Frank Castle translates.
Go figure. The fact that they feel the need to FUX up the entire character and the premise of his story just goes to show how little they actually care about The Punisher or his fans. They just want try and make a little money off of the name while ripping off Dexter.
I only hope they’re not going to FUX up The Spectre too. With The Punisher the sting isn’t as bad as it could be, because there’s been three movies and a game already. The Spectre hasn’t had any major multimedia exposure outside an animated short, so to ruin him could ruin any other prospects of another Spectre adaptation.
This sounds beyond awful. I agree with everyone that this is NOT The Punisher. Ed Bernero probably liked FRANKENCASTLE, the only Punisher-related series that I bailed on. PUNISHER: WAR ZONE had problems in tone — Jigsaw was way too over the top — but at least they got the Punisher right for once. This sounds like a disaster. Idiots.
The Frank Castle character is no hero. He’s a Mack Bolan/ Charles Bronson-inspired Spider-Man villain. A damaged psychopath who wages war on criminals but does as much harm as he does good. His merciless determination to kill the latest bad guy, and his isolation from normal human relationships, makes his stories pretty flat.
Stories pretty flat?? Lol I guess we can assume you’ve never heard of Garth Ennis or Punisher Max?
And as far as causing as much harm as good…source?
Stories are flat?! Lol I guess it’s safe to say you’ve never heard of Garth Ennis or Punisher Max.
As far as the Punisher causing as much harm as good…source?
I’m talking “ordinarily.” I was quoting one of the Marvel editors from a few years back making a side-comment about Frank Castle, who felt that it can be hard not to fall into a repetitive formula with the Punisher. When Castle is too simplistically sociopathic, then all he does is kill the bad guys. Contrast to Peter Parker, whose personaluty and motives allow him to take a variety of approaches to certain bad guys, or to make a variety of choices. Or even to Bruce Wayne, who is a less emotional and more obsessive character than Peter Parker, but who still chooses to deal with the baddies in a couple of different ways. But Frank Castle is cracked, and basically dead inside. I understood what that editor was trying to say. Castle, to work best (imo), needs to be cracked enough to be scary-dangerous, but still feel shreds of decency.
These comments are so right on, better than this Disney infected tripe will ever be. Death Wish with futuristic weapons could be a template, but it won’t be near that hard core. Yet as a property, it is shown the Punisher will clearly never DIE
Great! So Marvel hires supreme hack meister Jeph Loeb to run their television department and one of his first “ideas” out of the gate is sell Punisher to Fox (who has fucked their other franchises) as a Dexter ripoff, because the notion came to him while watching Julie Benz in the last Punisher film.
You know what NEVER works for this character? Inner conflict regarding his mission. So now you’ve embraced the worst half of their previous film, that FLOPPED, and continue to undermine what used to be one of their hottest characters.
GENIUS!
interesting fox wanting to do the punisher on tv for the character is better suited for tv then on film though do not like that he is a cop moon lighting as a vigilantie by night when the punisher is a vigilantie period. if nothing else fox can put the punisher with the spectre right before they kill them both for winding up showing signs of becoming hits. that plus with the punisher at least fox will have one marvel character to play witn since sooner or later dismarvel will have all the movie rights fox has back in their fold.
The appeal of the character is that he and his activities are so thoroughly, outrageously un-PC.
Certainly too un-PC for network TV.
This sounds like yet another high concept that won’t be able to deliver on the promise.
THE PLAYBOY CLUB, anyone?
Half you people have never read a punisher comic. If you had then go and find a copy of marvel what if #10 What if the punishers family hadnt been killed. Hes a cop in the story and it shows how he still became the punisher. I would not be surprised if this was given to exec to pitch this series. Spoilers ahead be warned……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….war vet comes home becomes cop, corrupt policeman, family murdered, becomes punisher. great drama comic equals great tv series. Go ahead read a punisher book. Then give a opinion. Untill then lets wait and see.
AHHHH!!!! AGAIN THEY MAKE HIM A FUCKING COP!!!! FUCK WHY DO THEY KEEP CHANGING HIS MOTHERFUCKING ORIGIN!!!?? FUCK YOU MARVEL!!!