RayStevenson Tagged Articles at Cinematical

If you crossed him, Shondor would kill you. If you didn't, he would charm you.

Sounds like Christopher Walken, doesn't it? Or, at least, his well-honed movie persona as charismatic tough guy. In a bit of pitch-perfect casting, The Hollywood Reporter posts that Walken, Ray Stevenson, and Val Kilmer have signed onto Jonathan Hensleigh's The Irishman -- an adaptation of Rick Porrello's book, To Kill the Irishman: The War That Crippled the Mafia.

Walken will play Shondor Birns, a Jewish-American mobster who was once Public Enemy No. 1 in Cleveland, who hired a young Irish-American dude named Danny Greene (Ray Stevenson) back in the '60s. As time went on, Greene wanted a bigger chunk of the biz and wealth, which led to bad blood and ultimately, a rather nasty car bomb that killed Birns. Greene, meanwhile, was a little bit of everything -- FBI informant, instigator of a country-wide turf war, union organizer. (Kilmer will play a police detective in Cleveland who befriends Greene.)The project is billed as an action movie, so expect lots of fighting, and probably lots of time spent on the bombs that riddled both men's stories. (Here is even more about it.)

This is far from the first mob-filled story ol' Walken has involved himself with, but should be a bit meatier -- and definitely bloodier -- than the usual fare. While we're on the topic: Which is your favorite Walken mob movie?

Remember a little story we ran back in December where Rome writer Bruno Heller revealed plans to bring the series to the big screen? According to Ray Stevenson and MovieWeb, it's actually gone from "a smoke and mirrors rumor" (his words) to something that's actually happening: "The script is in full development. As you are probably aware, this is a pretty strange process. We could go into production in a year, or it could be as quick as six months. Who knows? It will happen. At least it is no longer a rumor. From what I have heard, they are nearing the end of script development. We shall see. We shall see."

Granted, scripts are written every single day and never ever filmed, but they're supposedly eying a release date of 2010. Even without Heller's script in hand, Stevenson is aboard and ready to play Titus Pullo again. "I can't wait to dust off the cobwebs of old Pullo. The guy is going to come in with a high body count. I love Pullo. I love him to pieces. I had such a great time playing him. And I got to do it in Italy and Rome. He is very special to me. He is a very special part of my history. I was very blessed to get that part."

I would love it if this became a reality, but I'm perplexed as to what it would tackle historically, as the rest of Augustus Caesar's reign was relatively calm. Titus Pullo could certainly help expand the Empire (and the gory mischief he would get into would be a movie in and of itself) but it would lack the political punch of the series. Perhaps they can fudge the years a bit (hey, it's Hollywood history) and put Pullo in Palestine after all ...

Who do you prefer: Frank Martin (Jason Statham in Transporter 3) or Frank Castle (Ray Stevenson in Punisher: War Zone)? While munching popcorn at my local multiplex on Friday night, I realized that both movies I was watching featured lead characters named Frank! Since both flicks were disappointing to various degrees (as explained at length by William Goss and Eric D. Snider), my mind wandered and I began imagining a movie in which the two battled to the death. Call it Frank vs. Frank.

If that calls to mind the horror movie stand-off Freddy vs. Jason, you're not far off from my idle imaginings. In fact, the extreme body count and ultra-violence inflicted by Frank Castle -- I can't remember when I've seen so many blown-apart faces and shotgunned heads -- means that Punisher: War Zone closely resembles an 80s slasher movie. Of course, Transporter Frank would rather avoid violence altogether, but he too manages to lay waste to dozens of bad guys.

Both Franks live by their own set of rules: Transporter Frank insists on no names, no opening the package, and no changing the deal, while Punisher Frank only kills criminals who deserve to die -- which is all of them, but still, it's a rule. Both men prefer to work alone. And both men enforce their own dress code: Transporter Frank wears a black suit, white shirt, and black tie, while Punisher Frank wears a skull on his full-length costume (admittedly, not so prominent in the latest version).

I know who'd win in my movie version, but I thought I'd throw it out there to my fellow action movie junkies. Who would win: the more cerebral, 'let me alone, I want to retire' Transporter Frank? Or the merciless, 'forever hell bent on vengeance' Punisher Frank?

Punisher: War Zone is proof of just how tenacious the people at Marvel Comics are. They're going to keep remaking and rebooting their characters' franchises whether anyone likes it or not!

This is the third time they've taken a stab at Frank Castle, aka the Punisher, the sourpuss vigilante who's been murdering villains in comic books for over 30 years. The first film, in 1989, starred Dolph Lundgren. It turned out as well as could be expected, considering it starred Dolph Lundgren. The reboot, in 2004, starred Thomas Jane and was ridiculed by critics and ignored by audiences.

But hey, third time's the charm, right? Punisher: War Zone, which is as laughably campy and violent as ever, follows the same procedure as this summer's Incredible Hulk in that it's not another origin story, but it's not really a sequel to the last entry, either. 2004's Punisher had Castle's entire extended family being murdered; here, it was only his wife and children. Maybe they realized it's hard to relate to a guy being upset that his mother-in-law was killed.

Castle, now played personality-free by Ray Stevenson (HBO's Rome), has been living in the shadows of New York City and killing bad guys for either four years or five years, depending on which character in the movie you ask. He has an endless stockpile of weapons and some military training. He also has a serious grudge against organized crime -- not just the specific Mafiosi who murdered his family (he dispatched them long ago), but all Italian-named thugs, gangsters, and racketeers.

His primary opponent this time is Billy "the Beaut" Russoti (Dominic West), who renames himself Jigsaw after suffering a Punisher-related accident that tears up his face. An undercover FBI agent is killed during the same scuffle, which Castle feels incredibly guilty about. That guy had a wife and kid, after all! Of course, so did many of the hundreds of criminals Castle has murdered over the last four/five years, but never mind.

The Book of Eli had me halfway when they cast Gary Oldman -- but they got a guaranteed ticket sale from me when they cast Ray Stevenson. I'm disappointed that he's playing another badass assassin type, but hey, at least I'll believe he could kick Denzel Washington's ass.

The plot description has been incredibly dry thus far -- a man named Eli protects a book that may be humanity's salvation, Oldman is the despotic mayor of a struggling town, Mila Kunis is an assassin sent to kill Eli, but who ends up joining him. But we have a little more, courtesy of its newest cast member. Stevenson sat down with Reelz Channel, and shed a little more light on the bleak future this film will inhabit. "The world in which it is set is completely uncompromising. The most precious commodity is actually water, because virtually all of the water is poison, toxic -- whether it's due to eruptions from the earth or the poisons in the sky. These very basic things are what drives human nature down to almost animalistic qualities. But what still separates us from the animals?"

Hmmm. Shades of Waterworld, a threat that looms over every post-apocalyptic film not titled The Road. There's never an in between when it comes to this genre ... you either end up with something cool and Max Maxish, or you end up with The Postman. Let's keep hoping for the best, though. The film begins shooting in February, and has a release date of January 15, 2010.

After blowing up baddies in this week's surprisingly entertaining Punisher: War Zone, it looks like Ray Stevenson is now taking aim at Denzel Washington's protagonist in The Book of Eli. In the near future, Washington's on a mission to deliver a book that may hold the key to nothing less than Our Salvation (not to mention so very many late fees), with Mila Kunis at his side and Gary Oldman on his tail, and now -- according to Variety -- Stevenson (HBO's "Rome") has this makeshift messiah in his sights.

The post-apocalyptic thriller marks the return of the Hughes Brothers behind the camera for the first time since 2001's From Hell, and between them and a cast of this talent (yes, that includes Kunis, stop snickering), they might manage to make this somewhat less derivative than it already sounds, to echo Monika's sentiments.

Production starts in early 2009 for a release date in early 2010.