the punisher 2 Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Recently, when Paddy Considine was being considered for the role of the villain Jigsaw in The Punisher: War Zone, a fan questioned why the movie would cast a Brit as an Italian mobster. That fan will probably continue wondering, because, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Lionsgate has finally announced the actor who won the part over Considine, and it is another English actor, Dominic West. If you remember, Considine was offered the role when the first choice had to pass, but then that first choice ended up taking it after all. So, West must have been that first choice. Funny, I was expecting someone more well-known, but I guess with recent appearances in 300 and Hannibal Rising and a recurring part on the popular television series The Wire, West is still more famous than Cinderella Man's Considine (personally, I can only place West in 28 Days, while I've seen much of Considine's work). For those unfamiliar with the comics, Jigsaw has a torn-up and re-stitched face, so it isn't like audiences will be recognizing West's own mug anyway.

Joining West is a more familiar actor who has also just been cast in the movie. Everyone's favorite conniving fat man, Wayne Knight (Seinfeld's "Newman"), will play Microchip (aka Linus Lieberman), the lone confidant who works with The Punisher, supplying him with guns and ammo -- think James Bond's Q meets Batman's Alfred, says Wikipedia. Because we can expect nothing less from Knight, though, I have to assume he also stabs The Punisher in the back and then gets eaten by dinosaurs. West and Knight join Ray Stevenson, as The Punisher, and the recently announced Dash Mikok (Romeo + Juliet's "Benvolio"), as Detective Soap, Colin Salmon (Resident Evil), as Agent Budiansky, and Doug Hutchison (The Green Mile) as LBJ (aka Looney Bin Jim). The comic adaptation will be directed by Lexi Alexander and may be released as early as late 2008.

Over on her official website, director Lexi Alexander has revealed three new additions to the Punisher: War Zone cast. While she still hasn't let slip who'll be playing Jigsaw (I have a feeling this will be a pretty solid name, though it won't be Paddy Considine), she does tell us who'll be filling in for some other characters, aside from the casting of Ray Stevenson as The Punisher (something we already knew). Alexander kicks off the announcement by saying: "There are not a lot of directors in the process of making a studio action film who can say that they don't have at least one bad actor somebody made them cast. I can say that. Still. (Knocking on every piece of wood as I speak). I have the best cast on the planet. The movie Gods were watching over me. I know, I know, give it up already. Well, here is who I'm allowed to reveal:"

And who does she reveal -- drum roll please -- Dash Mikok as Detective Martin Soap, Colin Salmon as Agent Paul Budiansky and Doug Hutchinson as Loony Bin Jim. Alexander concludes the announcement by teasing us once again: "As I look at their headshots on the wall in my office, my heart does little summersaults. And... I have the perfect, most talented Jigsaw!!!!!!! Stay tuned. (Don't you hate that)." Yes, we do hate that -- tell us who it is already! Over on her site, Alexander also provides pictures of the three men alongside comic illustrations of the characters -- and might I add, they look pretty similar. But ain't that the point? As Christopher already told us, this Punisher film has nothing at all to do with the other flicks starring Thomas Jane and Dolph Lundgren (thank God) -- think of it as sort of a re-do, another take, a "this is our last try before the Punisher goes bye bye for good." No release date planned as of now, but the flick is on the pre-strike list, so it will most likely be heading to theaters next year.

I love the internet. Without it, actors couldn't use their own website forums to get feedback on which roles to choose. This is precisely what Paddy Considine is doing. In a forum topic titled "Considine: 'I Haven't Sold Out.'", the guy claims to have been offered a role in The Punisher: War Zone, and he wanted to know if it would be selling out to take the part. The issue has fans divided, but mostly the consensus is that he should do it, if only because comic book movies like Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk also have great actors. Of course, there was discussion about the other Punisher movies being bad, though initially nobody seemed to mention the fact that the new installment will be a reboot of the franchise, a do-over with completely new talent and direction.

Considine posted again and confirmed that the role offered is that of the villain, Jigsaw. He still hadn't decided on taking it, though, and stated he would be reading the script today. He admitted that he only thought of "Jigsaw" as being the villain from the Saw movies. One enthusiastic fan has since posted that Considine must do it, because of the screenwriters (Iron Man scribes Matt Holloway and Arthur Marcum), the director (Oscar nominee Lexi Alexander), the star (Ray Stevenson) and the suggestion that War Zone will be the Batman Begins for the Punisher character. Another poster detailed the character of Jigsaw, a scarred pretty boy mobster, and pointed out that he should be a villain that lasts through more than one film. Now it could be your chance to join the forum and give your own opinion of whether or not Considine is good for the role (or vice versa). Personally, I've got Cinematical to express my own thoughts, and I think he should go for it, because he indeed would make the movie better by appearing in it. And it certainly would be good for his career to do a bad guy in a mainstream picture, even if it doesn't do well. Hopefully he has enough internet-presence to see this and takes my advice.

UPDATE: Turns out Considine is not taking on the role. Over on his blog, he's reported the following: "The original choice for Jigsaw dropped out, then they offerered it to me. I'm very dubious because the other films looked shite. Then whoever is responsible said that their original choice has decided to do it, therefore pulling my offer. The only blessing was that I didn't waste an hour of my life reading the script. That be the way of the film world."

[via Coming Soon]

Okay, honestly, there isn't a whole lot of new information here, but I was just so darn pleased to hear somebody talking about The Punisher 2 flick again. Yeah, I know the first movie didn't play so well, but I absolutely love the character, and actually enjoyed the flick, so I'm excited to see what Tom Jane will do with a second chance at the franchise, especially now that the team has learned what did and didn't work out the first time around. Lots of room to improve, right? Good old Tom Jane recently sat down with BigFanBoy's livecast (apparently, the guy is making the rounds), and chatted with them about the direction of the new flick.

Jane (odd to refer to him by his last name only, since it sounds like I'm talking about a girl) told BFB that action is finally happening again on the project, and a new script writer has been brought on board to offer a treatment. This is good in the sense of "hey, at least something is finally happening," but it is always a dangerous sign when scriptwriters keep replacing one another. You're teetering on the edge of development hell eventually, especially when you are the sequel to a flick which was not amazingly popular. Jane also echoed the recent sentiments of others involved with the project, saying he wanted to move away from the goofy humor of the first film: "... just straight noir, drama, with the inherent blood and guts in it." So, do you suppose a second movie holds great promise, or are you already writing off another sequel attempt from Hollywood -- land of no new ideas?

Welcome back, friends. I'm going to go in an interesting new direction -- some might call it radical -- with my column today, and actually do a geek-roundup news in review for this past week! That's right, it has only taken me three columns to get around to writing what I'm actually supposed to write. You may leave your praises and accolades for my journalistic prowess in the comments section. Now for the Geek Beat... 

X-men 3 is still coming, and you can't do anything about it. Nothing new has changed, and so we're going to skip right past the X-Verse for now and see what else the Geek Beat has to offer. If you've got some fresh X-News or opinions to offer, comment away.

A plot synopsis for the new Spider-Man flick has found its way to the internet. The legitimacy is still technically in question, but it seems to be right in line with what everyone was expecting. I'll have a lot more to say about the plot of this flick in the coming months, but for now I'd just like to complain once more that they are adding in Gwen Stacy after already making MJ the primary initial love interest and GIVING MJ HER DEATH SCENE. It wasn't enough that they gave the death scene to someone else - and didn't actually kill her - now they are going to parade her character across to screen to remind us of the insult. I know you casual fans out there can't figure out why we True Believers are so bent about this, but just take my word for it -- it's a big deal.