Punisher: War Zone

[Francesco Dellamorte]

Lexi Alexander, director of Green Street Hooligans has wrapped principal filming for the latest installment to the Punisher franchise of films. Punisher War Zone has been filming in Vancouver BC for the past few months. P:WZ stars Ray Stevenson (HBO's ROME), Julie Benz (Rambo),Dominick West (The Wire, Hanibal Rising) and will hit theaters on September 12, 2008. For stills from the film check out www.thepunisher.com

From Lexi's January 28th Blog:

"Greetings from Vancouver, BC, where we will shoot a pick up scene during the night on top of a high-rise roof at below zero temperatures. I don’t know what it is with this film, but apparently, the price of getting it right seems to be complete torture of both the crew and cast. Ha, ha. This time, though, we all seem to be less bothered by the conditions, mainly because we look forward to seeing each other again to complete a film we are all very proud of.

They say that if a film is blessed with the birth of a baby during its production it will have all the luck in the world and will be hugely successful. Well, fasten your seatbelts, because we had not one but two little ones arrive. None other than the Punisher himself, Ray Stevenson and his beautiful lady Betta celebrated the birth of their son Sebastiano Derek Stevenson (aka Future Punisher) on December 24th.

My cinematographer Steve Gainer actually missed the birth of his beautiful daughter Lexi Lu Gainer, since she was born during pre-production on October 12th, when we were buried in so much work that he couldn’t leave Montreal even for a day. So there you have it -- The PUNISHER in luck -- not that we relied on that!!

My team and I spent a lot of time researching the comic books, Tim Bradstreet’s art and all the reference films we decided upon. I think we watched one of those films at least 25 times during prep. Thank God Montreal has an endless supply of excellent wine and cheese, which made those sessions much more enjoyable.

Tim Bradstreet was especially helpful to us during prep and we were lucky enough to get him on the phone a couple of times to pick his brain. So you can imagine how stoked I am to get Tim’s first reaction to what he had seen of the film so far. Here is an excerpt from his email: “I had an opportunity to see a ton of stills from the film and it looks sensational. The Jigsaw makeup is top. LOVED seeing Doug Hutchinson look like such a hard assed nut, and of course, Ray Stevenson looks AWESOME. They lit a lot of it like I light and [they] did a great job.”

I know you guys haven’t really seen any of my favorite shots of Ray Stevenson as Frank Castle, so I am attaching a couple of stills. Hope you enjoy them and, if I make it down from the roof without freezing any limbs off, I’ll update you on the post progress very soon.

Onwards and upwards!
Lexi"

-FD

[HOO-HAA]

Despite their flaws, I enjoyed both the Dolph PUNISHER and the more recent one with... what's-his-name...

... I'll be looking to check this one out, too. Frankie-Boy's a GREAT character.

[Francesco Dellamorte]

Despite their flaws, I enjoyed both the Dolph PUNISHER and the more recent one with... what's-his-name...

... I'll be looking to check this one out, too. Frankie-Boy's a GREAT character.


Yeah, I'm a HUGE Punisher fan boy and I pretty much learned how to read by reading Punisher comics as a kid. I didn't care too much for the Lundgren version but the Thomas Jane version was mildly entertaining. I didn't like that it was set in sunny Miami though.

Frank Castle is from New York and when I think of the Punisher, I think dark NY alleys with grime and grit, not sunshine and palm trees.

I'm really excited for this version because I hear it follows the 'Welcome Back Frank' storyline much more and I really dig Lexi Alexander's work. Green Street Hooligans was a pretty good film and had some interesting camerawork.

I'm hoping for a trailer pretty soon.

-FD

[jackskellington]

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b336/jackskellington70/Random/punisher.jpg

[zombiekilling101]

cool poster

I didnt really like the Thomas Jane one, it had its moments but it was too cheesy for my taste. I want the punisher movies to be a serious badass movie.

I remember Dolph being shot at by 50 guys.. then one of them throws a knife and tags him.. :lol:. Good times.

[JohnDRobinson]

I spoke briefly to an exec at Lion's Gate a couple years back -- he was buying a bunch of Punisher graphic novels and I was working at Borders (he was featured on the DVD so I know he wasn't b-s-ing me) -- and he mentioned back then the script was gonna be bigger and the budget higher and the Tom Jane was excited to come back. Cut to a couple months later and Jane is out. The problem was the script I'm hearing but I think it falls back on money. I suspect that Jane saw that the movie was getting bigger, where was his bigger piece of the larger pie.

I dug Tom Jane as The Punisher. I thought he did an okay job in bringing the latter day Punisher into the light. This one I think goes back to old school and I got a funny feeling it's gonna be better than the original. Not the Lundgren one. I don't think Marvel counts that as a "movie." Ha ha.

[M4X Punisher]

Here is a photo of the knife and Special Edition.
I made the knife for the movie. The special edition is slightly larger than the movie knife.
http://www.relentlessknives.com/punisherknife_files/PK1SPEDs.jpg

http://www.punisherknife.com
http://www.relentlessknives.com
TOPS knives will also be producing a knife licenced by the creator.
http://topsknives.com (http://tops.com)

[M4X Punisher]

An Official Quote from Lexi Alexander
"When I had to decide on an "official" Punisher knife for our movie, I chose a RELENTLESS knife out of thirty knives that were put in front of me. We all agreed it looked the best and felt most authentic for the Punisher.
Then I inquired if I could possibly get the knife a few sizes bigger. Dan Certo of RELENTLESS KNIVES USA offered to produce a custom made knife for the PUNISHER. When it arrived, it was as if someone opened a jewelry box with a 5 karat diamond in it. The entire cast and crew stopped to admire it. Needless to say, Ray Stevenson aka Frank Castle was in heaven and we the filmmakers liked the knife so much, we gave it its own close up in the first five minutes of the movie.
Dan, you are an artist!
Lexi Alexander --Director Punisher War zone

http://www.relentlessknives.com/newsletter_files/PunisherAd3.jpg

[DarthJoe8]

Has anyone seen this yet? This new Punish War Zone looks like the real deal, this guy looks like Frank Castle. :clap:

It's been a while since I've watched the original Punisher with Dolph Lundgren, but I thought this was way better than the Tom Jane version. Rewriting his origin and having it set in Miami was stupid imo. :loon: What's wrong with leaving a perfectly good story alone....:think:

It's been proven, If they don't cater to the comic book fans the movie fails. It really bothers me when they think they can sneak one by....dummies. :roll: Cat Woman comes to mind......:puke:

I'll wait for video though...:eat:

[M4X Punisher]

I won't attempt an
objective review.
I loved the movie.
It was made by hard driving people about a hardened character. who refuses to ignore the darker side of realitys we all face in today's world .
He has perfected the job of human trash removal .
The word RELENTLESS (Websters Dictionary defines the term)
re-lent-less; Unmoved by love or pity: Unceasing, as without mercy. Fits this guy to a T.
Some people can't stomach the truth that this character illustrates so well.
Frank Castle is doing a job......he's doing it because a million
others who 's job it really is ...are to soft, fat, corrupt , scared
or lazy to do Justice. Frank does it without a mask or a cape, he says little about it because deep inside it hurts him to know that this is the
only answer to a problem. Unfettered, the corrupt dish out untold human misery.
Frank is the sin eater, the True Dark Knight. Unlike Batman, Superman, Spiderman and the rest of the comic crew, Frank Castle is a modern day Wyatt Earp.
He promptly and effectively answers the call in the order received.
When the smoke clears in the real human experience.....one comment remains... even though coined by a real life villain who's idea of right was on Jigsaw's side of the fence....... "Justice comes from
the barrel of a gun".It's HARD, FAST and BRUTAL....but....TRUE.
Could the movie have been better.........of course, and Micky Mouse could have been better too.
I think some exceptionally vehement anti Punisher War Zone Movie reviews....are based on internal Cat Fighting in the movie business,
and let's face it....Frank Castle is NOT Politically Correct. In this film unlike the 2004 TJ film he shows little emotion.... But, what would you be like after 6 years of toasting bad guys....!
Thanks to Ray Stevenson, Lexi Alexander, Jon Barton and all for this Great Movie.

[SWAT Zombie]

BUMP!!!

^ +1

I'm a big Punisher fan from way back and this was by far the best portrayal of the Punisher. Dolph was okay, Thomas grew on me but Ray Stevenson is everything the Punisher is. Dark, gritty, hard edged, nasty. I really liked this versaion, the truest version so far, and I really hope they continue with this actor and this version. No more revamping, they nailed it about as good as you could with this one. Good stuff. :clap:

[Slight of the Living Dead]

BUMP!!!

^ +1

I'm a big Punisher fan from way back and this was by far the best portrayal of the Punisher. Dolph was okay, Thomas grew on me but Ray Stevenson is everything the Punisher is. Dark, gritty, hard edged, nasty. I really liked this versaion, the truest version so far, and I really hope they continue with this actor and this version. No more revamping, they nailed it about as good as you could with this one. Good stuff. :clap:

I couldn't agree more. I've been a HUGE Frank Castle fan since my first job ever, working in a comic book store back in '93.

"Punisher: War Zone" is easily the best of the three Punisher movies to most closely capture the TRUE feel of Castle and his Punisher persona. Plus, the movie doesn't feel the need to give you an hour of back-story, the action and gore starts pretty much right away and doesn't let up.

I highly recommend this film, it is definitely one of the best Marvel movies to truly capture the feel of the character as he/she exists in the comic-book realm!

--Tony