Apparently, The Punisher is just not meant to be a big screen icon.
First Dolph Lundgren took a stab at the character way back in 1989 following the original post-Batman comic book movie frenzy. Then Thomas Jane was cast in a reboot that didn’t please fans, and now it would seem that Ray Stevenson is the third and possibly final actor to play the role in Punisher: War Zone.
Word from AICN is that the director Lexi Alexander has been kicked off the project.
Film School Rejects also heard that the editing team from The Incredible Hulk has also been brough in to help the post-production process.
Now, I’m a pretty curious guy, that so I decided to check out Lexi Alexander’s personal web page – a site that had given copious updates throughout filming, and what did I see?
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What does that mean?
Hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil.
I think that a picture really does say a thousand words.
It would appear that Alexander has indeed been kicked off the film and the AICN rumors of her signing a non-disclosure contract are true!
Apparently this is the news:
“Lexi Alexander has been kicked to the curb – part of that treatment was her “honeymoon” from Comic-Con. However, there’s more totally awesome wedding gifts that Lionsgate has given the blushing bride. She’s off the movie and wrapped up in a non-disclosure clause – so we won’t be hearing from her anytime soon, UNLESS THINGS CHANGE RADICALLY – but Lionsgate isn’t necessarily known for calming down. They’ve decided to market it HARD CORE – and they’ve decided to jettison the composer for the film in lieu of loud thrashing metal, because nothing says PUNISHER like raspy amps.”
I hate when this happens, and it’s a shame – if there was ever a movie that needed good buzz it was The Punisher.
The rough cut of Punisher: War Zone seemed to go down well - after it was shown to the studio she said:
“Well, thank God it went well and, although I’ll probably have to compromise on a few minor notes, it’s not nearly as bad as some of my filmmaker friends predicted it would be. I guess I got away with an actual okay studio experience (knocking on wood since it’s not quite over yet).”
It looks like she didn’t knock on that wood hard enough!
Oh, the above quote is no longer on Lexi’s website – nor is there any Punisher: War Zone material.
It would seem that things went sour once Alexander handed in her cut of the trailer and then became “childish” when asked to make changes.
Interesting.
It will be interesting to see what happens here, I can only imagine fan outrage, and very sore ear drums if there is a loud thrashing soundtrack. Check out the latest trailer at IGN for clarification on thrashing soundtrack.
The aim is that the film will have a theatrical release, but if the film can’t be saved expect to see it coming to a DVD store near you.
Oh dear.
If there’s more news read it here on Screen Rant.
Sources: AICN , Lexi Alexander and Film School Rejects
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26 Comments
A shame. I’m a heavy metal and thrash fan but I do so like an actual score for a movie. Can’t wait to hear Lexi’s side once the movie is out and she can talk. (If that is the detail of the agreement.)
i already said this in the con wrap up thread but its more appropriate here,
I wil be boycotting this film.
The “thrash rock” soundtrack of the new trailer made me want to run in the opposite direction of this film.
Vic
I thought this film looked bad from the start. Personally I really liked the 2004 one. This one looks like it drops any story what so ever and goes for just mindless brutal death scenes. I realize that Punisher is all about violence and death, but there was always a deeper story and I thought the first filmed touched on that decently. Not to mention I really do not like Ray Stevenson at all so I’m not sure I can watch this film.
I sure as hell won’t be seeing this one, especially since I wasn’t impressed by any of the previous incarnations.
If this film has that crapass music in it, I will make sure all of the marvel fans in this city do not see this film.
Who the F is making these decisions?!?!
I personally Love Stevenson and thought what we saw visually was pretty badass for a low-budget no-star film, but with that music?!…
I still think Stevenson is an excellent choice ( he was fantastic in Rome ) to play The Punisher and I also think that metal sound track seems appropriate to me,(((((BUT)))) I am disappointed that Lexi is being tossed aside like this.
Seems pretty disrespectful to me ( regardless of the payoffs ).
for god’s sake are they idiots?they think that if they throw in some thrash metal it’s gonna be more hardcore?and better?my god….i think that every movie should have a great film score not heavy metal riffs.oh and by the way punisher is NOT a SAW movie that needs tons of blood and tortures.finally i don’t think that they should have kicked her out of the movie.it’s just not respectful.when they decide to assign one they should stick and help to the end.and i definitely think we should listen what lexi has to say about all this.
Nobody knows what is really going on with this story but you can be sure there are three sides..Lexi’s, Lionsgate’s, and the truth…It must have been pretty bad if Lionsgate was willing to generate all this negative press before the film was released in December..If it sees a theatrical release. I thought from all the trailers that I had seen that it looked horrible and I never had the urge of even remotely wanting to see it. I think that she did a poor job on this one IMO..all I have to base that on is the trailers and her previous movie which I thought was a poor effort as well. If Lionsgate has made no comment officially and ALexander’s tongue has been silenced by the non-disclosure deal then everything and I mean everything is pure speculation..
I like speculation in milk.
i can’t understand those guys at lionsgate.in the first movie they cast a good actor and a very small budget with a bad director.now in this movie they have a bigger budget,more time to shoot it and now not only they change the release date but they decide to fire the director.it’s as if they don’t want to make a good movie.for god’s sake the punisher deserves a better treatment.give the rights back to marvel or another studio or else i don’t think we’ll ever see a decent punisher flick.
Not to be a jerk JIM but even if the director was left on the film wouldn’t be all that great. Have you honestly seen the trailer? Lexi isn’t exactly a great director and I don’t find Ray to be all that talented of an actor. He isn’t bad just not great and something about him just dosn’t sit well with me. He definitely isn’t The Punisher in my mind.
daniel partly i agree with you.i never claimed that the trailer was superb or anything like that.ray certainly looks the part and you gotta admit that you don’t need an academy award actor to play the punisher.it’s a two dimensional character to me anyway.but judging from the trailer the movie is true to the comic.i just don’t get how all of a sudden everyone’s praising the previous movie like it was THE perfect punisher movie.i wonder where were all of them when the movie was released.
I have been waiting yrs for this one to come out I thought Ray rocked in ROME and he will be great in this to but I will not be seeing it in the theater or on dvd I will wait to see it on hbo or what ever channel it comes on lionsgate booting Lexi now is just cold and they will not get my money
The Punisher is not a two Dem character I think he actually has a good amount of depth and have an amazing film if done right. The problem with this film is that it will be nothing more, but mindless violence and a big giant blood bath. It seems as though it has nothing resembling a story in it at all.
Also I’m not all of a sudden defending the 04 movie I have always liked it. It has a few not so great moments, but for the most part I thought it was good it’s in my top 4 comic movies for sure.
to be honest with you when i first saw the 04′ i thought it was mediocre at best.but not because of tom jane.i really believe that he’s a good actor and i liked the fact that they tried to make frank castle a 3 dimensional guy.of course i don’t want to see an endless bloodbath.that’s for sure.this is not a saw movie.and it shouldn’t be marketed that way.the best thing would have been to make a sequel with tom jane but make it a little bit more action oriented this time.since the character had already been established in the first flick.
I agree with you that they should of done a Tom Jane sequal but in all fairness that was the plan then he dropped out to do that terrible mist movie lol.
yeah the mist was terrible.but anyway it just pisses me off when a studio intervenes so much with the making of a movie.directors should be able to make the movies their own way and not have some clueless producer showing them the door.why did they hire lexi in the first place,since they were not sure if she could deliver the goods?
Normally I would agree, but I think in Lexi’s case the movie might actually end up better with her gone. She seemed dead set on making this Saw, but worse.
oh well i guess we’re gonna have to wait and see.i hope the movie turns out good.
As much as i love the punisher i really think it should be left alone in movieland. Better no film than average & poor films. In fairness the premise is so simple it must be hard to make it interesting & engaging for 90 mins.
I’ve written an update – go here:
http://screenrant.com/punisher-niall-3308/
Niall
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