This weeks Weekend Movie News Wrap Up features:

The Box Office; Brad Pitt gets Lost; Pesce is Smokin’ Aces; we learn more details about Stallone’s The Expendables; Twilight really is Near Dark and Kenneth Brannagh talks Thor!

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It’s hard to believe that we are now into December. It seems like only yesterday I was talking about the big summer releases - and now we are looking forward to next years big movies.

This weeks Weekend Movie News Wrap Up features the obligatory box office wrap up as well as:

La Beouf is The Associate; Stiller talks Zoolander 2; who is Angelina Jolie? Zombie returns to Halloween and Brownlow Vs Captain Blood.

Short version: Whether you enjoy Punisher: War Zone or not will depend completely on what you’re looking to get out of it.

Screen Rant reviews Punisher: War Zone

So… there are two approaches I take to reviewing movies here at Screen Rant. Sometimes I review movies from a more “overall” perspective - generally speaking, and compared to most other movies out there, is it a good movie or a bad one overall?

Then I have what I call a “context review.” This is where I decide whether to basically adjust the bell curve and review a movie from more of a niche perspective. In other words, does it accomplish what it sets out to do within the context of its genre?

It seems as though the powers that be behind Punisher: War Zone have finally come to the conclusion that they need to ramp up the marketing campaign if they want people to actually go see this much-belabored film. Lately the TV spots have been popping up like zits on a fanboy’s face, and now new stills from the movie are flooding the Net in droves.

So there’ve been a lot of rumors surrounding Punisher: War Zone. Everything from day one script problems to rumors of the director being fired and even talk of the finished movie being as horrendous as the heavy metal soundtrack.

This overwhelming flood of rumors has effectively drowned out the usual questions we hear about comic book movies: Is the lead actor/actress doing right by the character? Is the director being faithful to the source material? Is the film more Dark Knight (gritty, real) or more Iron Man (tongue-and-cheek fun)? And of course, in this post-Joker era we must ask how good is the villain going to be?

Director Lexi Alexander has updated her blog with a new post talking about the military background of Frank Castle (played by Ray Stevenson). She highlights an interview with the production’s military adviser, real life hero Sergeant Jonathan Barton.

We’ve got few excerpts from the interview below, but you can head over to her site for the whole thing.

With less than two months to go before the opening of Punisher: War Zone, things are starting to happen on the marketing front for the movie.

A few days ago the official website for the film was revamped and after that a new lenticular poster for the movie was revealed.

Now (thanks to Screen Rant reader “Rampage”) we have a new, never before seen clip from the movie.

Not much of an update,but I just thought the new Punisher: War Zone (aka Punisher 2) poster looked pretty cool. I haven’t seen it in a theater yet, but it is a “lenticular” poster, meaning one of those that seems to follow you when you walk past it. From the image below it seems the guns Ray Stevenson is holding will follow you around the room.

Two movies that follow angry men with guns each have their own new websites up this week: Punisher: War Zone and Max Payne.

PunisherWarZoneMovie.com

The first, Punisher: War Zone, is entirely made in Flash and it looks and animates as if it were straight from a video game. Because it is Flash intensive, it takes a little while to load at first, even on broadband.

Welcome to the first October Screen Rant Mid-Week Movie News Wrap Up.

This week:

Battle: Los Angeles finds a director; Mickey Rourke’s Angel Heart gets remade; Jack Black is Bourne again, Punisher War Zone is rated while Sheen and Lucas joins Alice In Wonderland.

Thanks once again to Screen Rant reader “Nomad” we have another inside scoop on what’s been going on behind the scenes of Lexi Alexander’s Punisher: Warzone (aka Punisher 2). Nomad says that although the source cannot be named, they are HIGHLY reliable.

What follows are the details of what’s happened behind the scenes of the production from the first draft of the screenplay, to the Comic-Con, PG-13 accusations and the revelation that yes, the movie will be rated R. I’m posting what I was sent unedited for the most part, and have added my thoughts here and there.

Keep in mind I really don’t have any bias towards this film one way or another…

The saga of the Punisher: War Zone movie production has got to be one of the most soap-opera-ish things I’ve seen in the time I’ve been covering movie news here on Screen Rant. Rarely have I seen such angst and pain among not only fans of the comic book character that is being brought to the big screen, but movie fans in general.

There has been a tremendous amount of bad press surrounding The Punisher War Zone over the past several weeks.

Stories have been flying about stating that the director Lexi Alexander was fired from the production and that the film was being re-cut and laced with a Heavy Metal soundtrack.

Now the reliable Latino Review has a source stating that the film is going to be cut so that it is suitable for a PG-13 audience..

So what the heck is going on with The Punisher? Will the film be any good?

We get busy, we miss stuff. Here are some of the items of note that didn’t get individual posts today…

- Seth Rogen won’t be a fat Green Hornet. (Super Hero Hype)

- Maybe Goonies 2 isn’t on track after all. (Cinematical)

- Kevin Smith’s Porno gets an R rating. (AP)

Hollywood, what a crazy, unpredictable place!

Although we all watch movies, I don’t think many of us will ever get to have that true Hollywood experience - and I’m not talking about the type that Hugh Grant got back in ‘95! (Zing!)

Last week we told you that director Lexi Alexander had been removed from post-production on Punisher: War Zone by studio Lionsgate. Her website seemed to corroborate the news when it posted a picture of three monkeys in the classic “See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil” pose.

Now CHUD is reporting that Lexi is firmly on-board with the film, and that the story of her “departure” was a work of fiction meant to drum up publicity. Meanwhile, her website has now been updated with a few words from the director herself that appear rather vague, but seem to imply that she’s had a rough ride with the film.

SO WHAT’S THE REAL STORY?

 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?

My movie fanatic buddy Advanced Dark alerted me to these via his Marvel Movies Facebook page. They’re the first posters for the upcoming Punisher reboot Punisher: War Zone.

I think they convey a seriously dark, militaristic vibe - much more than the first film. I don’t know if people will show up to see this one, but it certainly looks like it’s going to capture the feel of the comic book version of the character.

Check out the posters below.

Courtesy of IGN.com comes the first trailer for Punisher: War Zone (aka Punisher 2), directed by Lexi Alexander and starring Ray Stevenson as the title character.

The similarities to what they’re doing for this Punisher reboot and what they’ve done with Hulk is uncanny. It’s the same situation: Marvel movies that didn’t do that great first time around, essentially rebooted to do the second time what they should have done initially: Keep the feel much closer to the comic book source material.

You can check out the first Punisher trailer below.

If you can believe it, the next Punisher film may be better than the previous one, and it’s directed by a girl.

Ok… a woman. Ok, ok… a hot-looking woman.

On her personal blog, director Lexi Alexander gave a brief update on the status of Punisher: Warzone (aka Punisher 2 although it’s the third Punisher movie). Among her comments was this one in reply to Ray asking how much the studio wanted to cut the movie:

Welcome to another Weekend Movie News Wrap Up. It’s almost St Patrick’s Day, which is great for everyone, but as I’m Irish it means that I can drink Guinness all day long and no one will look down on me. Well, no more than usual.

That’s enough about me though, I know that you don’t read this item to discover my social calender so I’ll cut to the chase and give you your movie news fix from the past week.

This week we have news on : Mad Max: Fury Road, George Lucas’ Red Tails, The Punisher : War Zone, Wolfgan Petersen’s Uprising and a new version of Heavy Metal.

Here’s a summary of what’s going on today in the wonderful world of entertainment…

- Harlan Ellison debunks the rumor that Star Trek 11 incorporates the Guardian of Forever. We reported this AS rumor a month ago, so we don’t fall under the category of blogs that Ellison so colorfully refers. - TrekMovie.com (warning, lots of colorful language… it IS Harlan Ellison after all)

- AICN floats a supposed alternative title to the upcoming Justice League movie which I believe is utter and complete hogwash and there’s no way it’s true. - AICN

- The uber-classic sci fi film Metropolis is headed for a remake. This could be incredibly stupid and the odds are that it’s a bad idea. However there is a very, very slight chance that if done correctly it could turn into a modern day classic. - FirstShowing.net

My first feelings of The Punisher: War Zone (aka, The Punisher 2), especially without Tom Jane as the man, were lukewarm at best. Then I heard the lame-sounding script got a rehaul, director Lexi Alexander sounded like she had some great ideas, and the casting of Ray Stevenson made me think, okay, this might be fun.

Well, judging by the first photo of Stevenson, I’m not sure what to think. This isn’t a good “first look” photo, because you can barely see him. To me, he looks kind of like Steven Seagal (gag!). But I don’t want to overanalyze this picture. See a bigger version after the jump. (BTW, we’ve tweaked the image to make it clearer and looking less like it’s being seen through deep, red filter.)

Just a quick note to let you know that the title of Punisher 2 will in fact be:

Punisher: War Zone

and NOT…

So, now Harry at AICN is saying that Stephen Sommers (The Mummy, Deep Rising) is back on G.I. Joe after all. Heck, I Googled G.I. Joe and saw more news reports of this. The rumors of him leaving are based on the fact that the script for the film is bad, not financial reasons.

So, why the rush to get this into production? It’s probably for the same reason we’re seeing Thor, JLA, and other films rushing to go before cameras recently…

Ya know… it seems to me that Thomas Jane (Frank Castle aka The Punisher from the previous film) really got the shaft regarding this whole Punisher thing. Only a few months ago he was all set to reprise the role and was looking forward to being in a darker, grittier version of a Punisher movie, and then the whole thing fell apart.

The specific reason for why he pulled out of the movie was ever explicitly revealed, but from the old news at AICN it seems that you can lay the blame on the script.

The timeline goes something like this:

The working title for the Punisher sequel is rather odd:

The Punisher: Welcome Back Frank

I don’t know if that will be the final title - SHH describes it as the “working title” which is the title of a movie while under production and does not always end up being the official title when a movie is released.

I know there hasn’t been much Punisher 2 coverage on the site - maybe it’s because I thought that The Punisher was pretty awful. Three months ago there was a lot of buzz online regarding the fact that Thomas Jane (who played the lead in the previous film) was not reprising his role in the sequel and in fact dropped out during early production on the film. I don’t think it was ever made clear if it was due to the script, the director or a combination of the two.

Then two months ago word came out that Lexi Alexander would be taking over the sequel and then one month ago the announcement was made that Ray Stevenson would be putting on the skull t-shirt.

Now more details about the film are emerging…

In the lead-up to next weekend’s San Diego Comic Con - where the news will most likely be made official - it has been reported that Rome star Ray Stevenson is set to fill the title role of Frank Castle in the sequel to 2004’s The Punisher. Stevenson, who played a lead role of Titus Pullo in the HBO series, follows in the footsteps of Dolph Lundgren and Thomas Jane as the Marvel vigilante who has so far failed to catch on with cinema audiences.

The news comes just months after Thomas Jane announced he would not be returning to the franchise, having lost faith in the production despite years of personal preparation.

Holy cow, Marvel is planning on releasing a TON of superhero movies. Will they all be great? Not likely… I’m sure they’ll have some Ghost Riders in there, but on the other hand they may strike gold with some depending on who is writing and directing.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what’s in the pipeline beyond what’s already currently in production: Wolverine, Magneto, Punisher 2, Silver Surfer, Sub-Mariner, Thor, Avengers (maybe) and Captain America. Whew!

Avi Arad was interviewed by MTV and spilled his guts on more projects than I really believe will make it to the big screen. There’s really no point to rehashing it here, there’s a nice summary over at RopeofSilicon.com.

He mentioned X-Men 3, Magneto, Wolverine, Ghost Rider (vs a giant tidal wave ), Spiderman 3, Captain America (think: Back to the Future), Silver Surfer, Thor, Punisher 2 and Iron Man.

Sounds like on Iron Man a complete script rewrite is being done by Nick Cassavetes, who has met with Arad several times to discuss the film.

Much more info at the link above.