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THE MOVIE: Punisher: War Zone
THE STARS: Ray Stevenson • Dominic West • Wayne Knight DIRECTOR: Lexi Alexander THE CONCEPT: Waging his one-man war on the world of organized crime, ruthless vigilante-hero Frank Castle (Stevenson) sets his sights on overeager mob boss Billy Russoti (West). After Russoti is left horribly disfigured by Castle, he sets out for vengeance under his new alias; Jigsaw. With the ‘Punisher Task Force’ hot on his trail, and the FBI unable to take Jigsaw in, Frank must stand alone to the formidable army that Jigsaw has recruited before more of his evil deeds go unpunished.
U.S. RELEASE: December 5 2008, Nationwide • Rated: R
THE COMMENTS:
LEXI ALEXANDER: “I was not familiar with the comic book at all when I got the script. And I have to say getting a script that says Punisher 2, which it was called, I wasn't jumping out of my chair. I think out of courtesy you have to read it. I read it and I thought this is really interesting. I'd like to look into the comic books. And by the time we actually had our meeting and they gave me the job, Marvel had sent me two boxes of comic books, and I read them over the weekend and I was like why didn't I read comic books before? I thought it was amazing. I studied really hard what the fans didn't like about the previous versions, what they were expecting, what they wanted to see, I got in touch with a lot of fan boys.” LEXI ALEXANDER: “I was not familiar with the comic book at all when I got the script. And I have to say getting a script that says Punisher 2, which it was called, I wasn't jumping out of my chair. I think out of courtesy you have to read it. I read it and I thought this is really interesting. I'd like to look into the comic books. And by the time we actually had our meeting and they gave me the job, Marvel had sent me two boxes of comic books, and I read them over the weekend and I was like why didn't I read comic books before? I thought it was amazing. I studied really hard what the fans didn't like about the previous versions, what they were expecting, what they wanted to see, I got in touch with a lot of fan boys.” RAY STEVENSON: “I wasn't aware of the character beforehand, and I got this phone call out of the blue, saying are you interested in this Punisher thing and I said, ‘Is there a script?’ No, no, no, you're not allowed to read the script. How can you commit to something like that? And then, I was in England and Lexi called me up, and she went, ‘Now Ray, you are Frank Castle, you are going to be Frank Castle, you're going to do this movie and if you have any doubt about doing this movie I will put your doubts at rest, if you still think that you're not going to do this movie I won't let you.’ Who's going to argue with that? WAYNE KNIGHT on his role of Micro Chip: “My research on Micro Chip gives you kind of different aspects of him. And so I didn't know which Micro Chip we were talking about, so I had to make an amalgam for me, of who he was within the context of this film, within the context of the kind of universe that we were doing the Punisher in. I saw him as being the supply sergeant for Frank's one man army, somebody who keeps it moving and tries to keep Frank sane and connected somehow to the earth. And that's basically my task.” STEVENSON on how he prepared for the role: “We did an extensive pre-film period, worked out about three or four months, and thankfully we did an awful lot of endurance training, because that actually paid the biggest dividend. We got through a very punishing schedule, excuse the pun, but it was two and a half months of night shoots and the endurance really had paid off. But we did do very concise work with the weapons, it wasn't about having the biggest gun, it was about having the right gun, and about knowing how to use it. The thing about Frank is that he's not a superhero. He hasn't got super powers or anything. He's got his training, his discipline and his weapon handling, and he doesn't have magic guns with magic magazines that never run out. In essence, Frank Castle is the weapon, and these are the tools that are an extension of him.” ALEXANDER: “I liked that on this project nobody ever said she's a female film- maker, they just said, she's the right filmmaker. When I wanted to pass on this film, a friend of mine said, ‘If you pass, I'll kick your ass. You might be the only girl who's going to break through the glass ceiling. You have to do it.’ And I think it's good, I think we're there and it should be like that.” KNIGHT: “I think that [comedy] pretty much comes with me whether I want it to or not, so I think that Micro Chip is kind of like the grave digger in Hamlet, you need to have leavening in order to feel the impact of the violence and the drama that's happening. So every now and then you come up for a little breath of air and then you dive back in. And that's kind of what Micro Chip does.” ALEXANDER on creating the role of Jigsaw: “We all had troubles with that. I didn't like him in the comic book too much, especially that one eye, if you're familiar with the comic book, he has a very cartoony eye. We tried several things, we did a screen test, we sent the screen test back to Marvel, they had great feedback, this is something where you really have to be collaborative, they came back to us said it was too like an alligator. What we ended up with, I really love.”
Written by Judy Sloane. Back to top Visit the official Punisher: War Zone site Images above © Lions Gate Films Feature © 2008 Visual Imagination. Not for reproduction.