DVD Talk Forum - Punisher 2 confirmed

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Resurrecting an old thread in light of the following bit of news (courtesy of filmwad):

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Thomas Jane Leaves Punisher Sequel

AICN reports that Thomas Jane, the man who would be The Punisher, has pulled out of Punisher 2. He doesn't really explain why, but it's obvious the guy is broken up about it and was irritated at the film the studios wanted to make. It's unfortunate, to say the least – the first Punisher, while undoubtedly bad, had some good moments that a sequel could have improved upon. With Jane leaving and no director in Hollywood desiring to follow up the first film, could this be the end of Frank Castle?

Anyway, here's Tom's entire letter:

"Quint,

I’m writing to tell you that I regretfully and painfully had to pull out of P2. I can’t tell you how completely broken up I am about it. After busting my ass at the gym four days a week for almost two years, watching every character driven action pic that any fan would ask me to watch while I was standing in line buying egg whites and Tuna fish (Leon the Professional, Oldboy, The Seven-Ups (GREAT flick), Point Blank, Escape from NY, The Driver, Magnum Force, The Mechanic, The Great Silence, Sexy Beast, Nighthawks, Cry Vengeance (check it out), Road Warrior, Man on Fire, Outlaw Josey Wales, Rocky (think about it), Serpico, etc etc etc.) after countless Saturday nights making notes and drinking soda water and munching on seaweed sticks while my daughter slept on my lap to the sound of automatic gunfire, (now she can’t sleep without it. I had to make a tape of automatic gunfire to play in her room at night) after hauling myself to any ‘Guns! Knifes! Ammo!’ show in any small town that I found myself in shooting Killshot or The Mist or Mutant Chronicles, after torn ligaments, screwed up rotator cuffs, thousands of $$$ on ridiculously huge vitamins, overly long conversations with frighteningly tall men about The Fastest Way To Kill Someone With Your Bare Hands, and after a dude refused to sell me a Fatburger at 2am on Santa Monica Blvd, I am, sadly – no, make that heartbrokenly – fuck it - just rip out the heart and stomp it into the pavement a couple of times – pulling out. Punisher fans are already fighting an uphill battle as it is. And I’ve always felt a responsibility to fight that fight for them and with them so that Frank Castle gets the treatment he deserves.

I'm sharing this with you because I know you're a fan, like me, and you've got your ear to the ground, and because we seem to share the same sort of taste and passion when it comes to movies and stories that get us off. What I won't do is spend months of my life sweating over a movie that I just don't believe in. I’ve always loved the Marvel guys, and wish them well. Meanwhile, I’ll continue to search for a film that one day might stand with all those films that the fans have asked me to watch.

Sincerely,
Thomas Jane"

Wow. That sucks. If that letter was real, though, I applaud Thomas Jane. I really enjoy the first* one and I even like the neighbor characters. But, I'd rather leave it at that than have a really shitty studio heavy sequel.

*I don't count the Dolph one because no skull shirt equals a guy with the same name, but not THE Punisher.

Anyone who watches The Great Silence as part of their prep work gets accolades from me.

Sorry to hear Jane won't be involved in a potential sequel.

I'm confused as to why he's pulling out. Is it that there's not much studio support and he's ticked off about it?

I got the impression that he's a fan of the source material and the studio wanted to make a more focus group friendly film using the name but not the substance on the source. And ultimately he thought it was going to turn out crappy and didn't want to be in a crappy flick.

I never liked Tom Jane as the Punisher to start so I can't say I'm disappointed.

You would think as fast as MARVEL movies are cranked out now, P2 wouldve already happened. Maybe they can bring him back, but if Bana can be replaced...

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I'm confused as to why he's pulling out.

It's pretty clear that in order to be polite to the production he's not coming right out and saying it, but reading between the lines - the script sucks and the people working on it don't seem to care. He says he just can't spend months of his life working on a film that he doesn't believe in. Sure he has been in crappy movies before, but that doesn't mean that he didn't at least believe in it when he first read the script.

Sad news if it's true. But I'd rather wait for news from a a reliable source, not AICN.

Does AICN usually post fake letters from the celebrities themselves?

It'd be funny if they did the 'Requim' story from the comics...Punisher breaks out of Rykers Island prison and turns black for a few episodes.

= J

New director rumors abound .

Sad that Jane is leaving. It was obvious from his portrayal of Castle that he was a fan of the character and his performance was the only good thing about the movie. The movie and screenwriter missed the character, but Jane nailed it with what he had.

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Originally Posted by Dr. DVD

:thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by Dr. DVD

What's amazing is that Jane had never read the comic before making the movie. He also had rejected the role several times because he thought it was just some super hero thing and he didn't see himself being able to do that kind of role. It took sending him artwork of Tim Bradstreet and issues of the Ennis run on the comics to finally get him on board and make a fan of him.

As for AICN, I don't think they faked the letter. They're just not the most reliable site around and I wouldn't be suprised if someone just sent in the letter claiming it was from Thomas Jane and they just ran with it. As I said, I'd rather hear it from a more reliable source than AICN.

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Originally Posted by fryinpan1

http://www.latinoreview.com/news.php?id=2452

The new Punisher is RAY STEVENSON.
http://www.latinoreview.com/images/u...ystevenson.jpg

Interesting ... I liked him a lot on Rome, but I hate it when they replace actors in franchises. We'll have to wait and see.

Well, I've completely lost interest now in the sequel.

I didn't even know Jane had pulled out. I can't bring myself to watch a sequel without the same director or lead character.

Meh, looking forward to it aswell as I loved the 1st.

What better things has Tom Jane got to do?

^Boogie Nights 2: The Return of Todd?

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What better things has Tom Jane got to do?

Even if he has nothing, he said that he didn't want to be involved in a sequel that he didn't believe in. Some people might say "But he's been in crap before" and i'd probably think that at the time he signed on to those movies he had high hopes for them.

Umm who? Never watched Rome. I miss Jane already :(

At least he looks a little older. Frank should be nice grizzled, so maybe this will put him at several years after the first movie.

This is BS! TJ was the Punisher

And who the hell is this Lexi Alexander that is directing? geez