News

SDCC: Punisher: War Zone Panel & Trailer/Footage Online!
Source:Edward Douglas
July 24, 2008


Superhero Hype! has made it into the soon-to-be-packed Lionsgate panel at Comic-Con and we'll be live bloggin' the half-hour presentation for Lexi Alexander's Punisher: War Zone for the next half hour, so pull up a seat and refresh regularly!

Producer Gale Anne Hurd is here, as well as Julie Benz and Ray Stevenson as the new Frank Castle aka The Punisher! Lexi Alexander couldn't be there because she just got married and was on her honeymoon... to the movie's 1st Assistant Director!!

Hurd started out by saying, "We really want a Punisher that's closer to the comics, and we stuck to the MAX series because we wanted a Punisher that was ruthless, violent vigilante justice." (That got big applause.)

The movie takes place in New York City and they wanted to find an actor who could look like Frank Castle from out of the comics.

They talked a bit about why they got Lexi Alexander to direct, and it was partially because she was a martial arts champion, and Hurd raved about her first feature Green Street Hooligans. She also had experience as a stuntwoman that helped the violence be authentic and real.

Ray talked about the character and how he's not a superhero and we had to make sure we had the proper psychological profile for Castle to give the fans what they deserve, and he feels they've done it. Hurd suggested that people check out HBO's "Rome" to see Ray in action.

They just showed the world premiere of the new trailer which opens with aerial shots of New York City and gets right into the origins of Punisher's arch-foe Jigsaw, played by Dominic West. The announcer says "Evil has many faces...Darkness has many allies...This is just the beginning. There's only one who punishes them all." It's a rich fast-paced trailer that shows lots of gangs converging around Jigsaw and lots of Ray Stevenson in action, crashing through windows and shooting lots of bad guys, and we do get one shot of him facing off with Jigsaw. The last scene has the Punisher with a crossbow with a laser sight and he says "See you in hell!" and shoots it into a room full of thugs with a big explosion.

Hurd mentioned that Lexi looked at the MAX series for the visual look of the movie.

They talked about the weapons, which Ray said were all "current military tech" and he did real military training in order to be realistic with Castle's background. Ray wanted to reflect the honesty and discipline that goes into military training that keeps soldiers alive.

Benz admitted she never read comics as a kid, and neither did Stevenson, although he said that he did a lot of jumping around as a kid in England. His first reaction was, "This is an uber-violence piece. It's beyond violence, but the more I read it, I couldn't put it down."

When asked if he signed on for more Punisher, he said, "If I had my wish, it's going to run and run. It's up to the fanbase. If this works, we get to do it all again."

The far-too-short panel ended with them showing a special music video of footage cut to Ramala's "Days of Vengeance," some of the same shots but a lot more violent pieces that wouldn't be accepted by the MPAA in a normal trailer. One of the striking scenes we saw earlier was the Punisher standing on a table where a bunch of thugs sat and he's holding a blowtorch. In this reel, we got to see a lot more blood splatter as people were shot in the head, punched in the face so hard their faces caved in; Jigsaw snaps one guy's neck and another thug gets the leg of a chair through the eye. This clip reel gave a really good impression of the visual style of the movie, as it combined some black and white footage with other scenes that used bleached-out colors to look like Tim Bradstreet's cover paintings from the comics. I'd say that visually, the movie is somewhere between "Sin City," combined with the movies of John Woo, only a lot more violent than both. The clip reel ended with the Punisher saying ominously, "This is just the beginning." (This music video is actually coming online and can be seen soon.)

And that was the end of the panel... way too short... not nearly enough time for questions from the audience. Hopefully, Lionsgate will do the junket in New York City, where the movie takes place, so we can talk more with Ray and Lexi and the rest of the cast.

The new trailer that was shown can now be watched in QuickTime and Flash format at Spike.com!

IGN Movies has also brought online the restricted footage shown at the panel which you can watch below!


Punisher: War Zone opens on December 5, 2008.


| 178 comments | Add a comment




Comments

Posted by: cask8er87 on July 24, 2008 at 23:03:56

and it begins...cant wait for the new trailer!


Posted by: MemnochZERO on July 24, 2008 at 23:04:05

Well i can't wait to see how the blog goes. Lexi really needs to pound out a red band trailer to get us in the (war) zone. The other one was.. well.. I'm trying to remain upbeat, but it was so tame. I wanna see my beloved MAX Punisher brought to life!


Posted by: Aeghast on July 24, 2008 at 23:11:24

Wait, Lexi's not there..?


Posted by: Aeghast on July 24, 2008 at 23:16:29

Wow, people still gets married..


Posted by: ass on July 24, 2008 at 23:22:19

where the hells the link for this!?!?


Posted by: Aeghast on July 24, 2008 at 23:33:40

So we're going to see Jigsaw next. Neat.


Posted by: ass on July 24, 2008 at 23:36:21

wheres the trailer?! and wheres the link to this live bloggin feed?


Posted by: ass on July 24, 2008 at 23:40:54

nevermind LOL


Posted by: Matthew H. on July 24, 2008 at 23:48:35

Hey guys, the Punisher: War Zone official site says that the trailer will be up in one day, 3 hours, and about 14 minutes. So there you go. We get to see it Saturday morning, iffin' my calcumalations' be correct. So do with that what you will.


Posted by: three of fifteen on July 24, 2008 at 23:49:32

i dont understand. the counter on the website is increasing, not decreasing. did i miss it or sumthin?


Posted by: JJ on July 25, 2008 at 00:28:05

Thank you for posting that link. I can't believe they were able to show all of that with as much blood and shotgun blasts to the face there were in that footage. Most violent movie ever???


Posted by: ass on July 25, 2008 at 00:31:17

haha, the closest thing i've seen to that much violence is like rambo.


Posted by: MarantAz on July 25, 2008 at 00:37:22

Wow, that is violent gory action.... nothing that hasn't been done before, but maybe not all in one film. You could be right about that, JJ. The man certainly looks more the part of Frank Castle than Jane did though.


Posted by: Landon on July 25, 2008 at 00:48:33

Now its got some awesome potential....


Posted by: Lead Tester on July 25, 2008 at 00:52:33

Looks like crap... after TDK everything does.


Posted by: wtf!!!!! on July 25, 2008 at 00:53:41

WTF!!! This is f**kin crazy!!! Reminds me of Rambo and Grindhouse... Its gonna be film ppl are gonna be sayin, "did you see that s**t when..." lol!!!


Posted by: Patman on July 25, 2008 at 00:55:27

Nice. The cinematography is still a little too colorful... but nice. Lots of nasty scenes.


Posted by: StarBlazer101 on July 25, 2008 at 00:56:39

And this is the part where we all take back what we said for the poster thread. This could possibly be the most violent Marvel movie ever made, and i like it.


Posted by: B. Trask on July 25, 2008 at 00:58:15

I can't help it, but anytime someone delivers the line "I'll see you in hell," I think of Homer Simpson saying that just before he blows away a dinner plate with a 357 Magnum.


Posted by: Phisaki on July 25, 2008 at 00:58:51

This movies looks freakin awesome! Way more action than the last Punisher movie!


Posted by: The Phantom on July 25, 2008 at 01:10:41

Every Marvel character brings something different to the table. The reason comics are so popular and have strived is because there are so many different and unique characters that appeal to all walks of people. Frank Castle is a vengeful, nasty, jaded mofo. Killing wrongdoers is what he lives for after losing his family. He's beaten up and psychologically effed up. This looks like a great adaptation. Punisher is the poorer, darker, nastier Batman of the Marvel world. A vigilante who is willing to break the law and kill those who get in his way. I hope this movie breaks records for violence, like it seems its well on the way to doing.


Posted by: EL Bart-O on July 25, 2008 at 01:11:20

Well I've never seen someone stick a chair leg into someone else's eye so that's new. Gotta love how BR00TAL Jigsaw looks. The part where Frank has the flashback of him surrounded by his dead family is really sad, but everything else is like super kickass haha. Now i'm really excited.


Posted by: Juicypoops on July 25, 2008 at 01:20:21

Can't wait for the Unrated dvd... cause half that stuff won't be in the feature film at the theater. Unless they actually go "R" with it... which wouldn't make them half the money they want to make. Looks pretty crazy though ... love that chair to the face... Bring the pain!


Posted by: bruceleewayne on July 25, 2008 at 01:32:59

wooooooow!!! appeals even more to me now after seein what its all about!! this looks incredible. i loved TDK but Frank....he my other main guy!


i liked the music inthis new video too...anyone have an idea what it is?!


Posted by: Tony on July 25, 2008 at 01:50:35

wow can not wait.dec5 is not that far away.


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