Thomas Jane Wants to Return to Punisher

By Jay Katz 16 years ago

The star of the first (recent) Punisher film talks about the direction he wanted for the franchise and the possibility of returning in the future.

In an interview with MTV News , Thomas Jane, who played Frank Castle in the 2004 Punisher film, talked about his original vision for the Punisher, and the failure of the Punisher movies to live up to that vision, which of course led to his dropping out of the planned sequel in 2007, which became the reboot film Punisher Warzone, released in 2008:

"My interest has always been based more in reality than in superhero
fiction, and with the original ‘Punisher’ I very much pushed them to
try to make a movie that was more like ‘Death Wish’ or ‘Taxi Driver’
than ‘Spider-Man,’" Jane told MTV News. "The strengths of ‘The
Punisher’ that I did lie in the reality that we were able to bring to
the character, and the weaknesses of ‘The Punisher’ I did were all
based on people trying to make this a ‘comic book movie’—with funny
characters and goofball s–t that has no place in a ‘Punisher’ film."

Jane said that he feels the perfect Punisher film has never been made, and for that reason, he would like to return to the franchise. He claims that the success of The Dark Knight vindicates him, as the style and tone of that movie was what he had wanted for the Punisher:

"[‘The Dark Knight’] made $500 billion at the box office, so I felt
vindicated—because everybody in the business who was familiar with what
I was trying to do with ‘Punisher 2’ recognized that as the tone I was
going for in ‘Punisher 2,’" explained Jane. "Now that somebody actually
accomplished that and put it on film and it received that response from
the audience—[that] validates the idea that a Frank Castle movie needs
to be a gritty, reality-based film."

Jane realizes that it will likely be years before the Punisher franchise can be rebooted again, but if and when that happens, he would like to be involved, and see a movie similar to the styles of directors like Sam Peckinpah, who directed The Wild Bunch, and  Walter Hill, who directed The Warriors. He mentioned being a particular fan of the cover portraits of The Punisher created by Tim Bradstreet.

It should be noted that Ray Stevenson, the Irish actor who played Castle in the Punisher Warzone film, also expressed interest in returning for a sequel. Perhaps this can be settled in a gruesome, violent death match?

Source: MTV News
Syndicated from The Outhouse – Comic Community Run By Fanboys, For Fanboys
Posted originally: 2009-10-07 13:10:42

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