Pete! You Rock! You totally carry the Stack... I'll be at the Con on Sunday and I was wondering what your professional take is on Radical Comics. I've been to the website and I'm really excited about meeting them and seeing their work. What do you think about them?

Pete, while you're there, you should go talk to Chris Hastings about Dr. McNinja. I think it;s right up your alley. There's plenty of info on his website.

http://drmcninja.com/index.html

Pete, I hope you guys got a chance to talk with Wolverine (Hugh Jackman). let there be some footage.

I was pretty tepid on Punisher War Zone until you mentioned the heavy metal. Metal makes everything better. I'm pumped.

Punisher War Zone was taken from its Director, Lexi Alexander, who was given the boot by producers Lionsgate. At Comicon they said shes was on her "Honeymoom." The score has been thrown out. The added hardcore music is their attempt to cater to idiots who think loud music + violence = heaven. The truth is, a lot of people were trying to make a real movie and now the studio is mucking it up.

Aintittool says "the film may survive the manhandling, but will not be the film that lovers of Garth Ennis and Tim Bradstreet are hoping for. Expect an erratic head pounding METAL show."

I will never see a good Frank Castle movie I guess... I won't support this kind of producer strong arming.

If you love the Punisher, you may want to read this, I found it on another site and he gives permission to copy it elsewhere.
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Lionsgate, you’re in my crosshairs.

Punisher: War Zone had a crapload of negative publicity to overcome from the go. It began when Lionsgate switched directions and popular 2004 Punisher lead actor Thomas Jane walked away heartbroken from “something he couldn’t believe in.” Fair enough, Tom’s entitled to his opinion based on his own experience with the project at the time. OUCH.

Then writer Kurt Sutter, who had contributed to the PWZ screenplay early on, chose not to take credit because so little of his own contribution remained, but publicity hounds primed for negativity immediately twisted that to mean that he’d taken his name off it because it sucked. Shall I remind anyone that PWZ writers Matt Holloway and Art Marcum, who eventually contributed enough to justify accepting credit, are the creative team that brought audiences Marvel’s successful Iron Man?

Despite this early negativity, PWZ director Lexi Alexander stepped in and managed via her blog at http://lexialexander.com to get many fans behind HER vision for this REBOOT, a vision that had brought new lead actor Ray Stevenson and most everybody else on board. Cast and crew suffered a brutal Montreal winter to bring that vision to bear. When some fans questioned cinematographer Steve Gainer’s colourful lighting in the first teaser, she showed them the colourful panels pulled directly from the comics. When they questioned other artistic choices, she informed them that her role as director required her to deliver a product which appealed to both die-hard fans AND a broader general audience. But she was ALWAYS keen on informing FANS that no matter those choices, she was giving them the MEAT they wanted: Garth Ennis’s violent, bloody, darkly humorous, psychologically tortured, hard-R MAX PUNISHER, set in NEW YORK CITY, pitted against one of the vigilante’s most memorable adversaries: Jigsaw. Many who had been on the fence before were won over by the new redband trailer and music video from San Diego Comic-Con 2008 which finally offered a peek at what Lexi had delivered!!

LIONSGATE FILMS: YOU greenlit the screenplay, YOU greenlit this tough-as-nails Oscar-nominated director, she delivered what YOU’d agreed upon, and YOU caused her positive publicity machine to grind to a halt. You know, while Gale Ann Hurd and Ray and Julie Benz and Tim Bradstreet were busting their arses to garner positive publicity for PWZ at Comic-Con, Tom Jane was in attendance with his own project and grumpily told PWZ fans that PWZ is “a piece of shit.” Tom left PWZ before it even settled on a name, so he can’t offer any reasonable opinion on what’s going to the screen, but many actors’ roles have been recast before without QUITE this level of bitterness (think oft-recast Batman / Dark Knight franchise). Then a mere DAY after all the GOOD publicity generated by Comic-Con, your own “insider” broke the “bad news” to aintitcool.com that you were limiting Lexi’s further involvement because she revolted when you changed the rules (anybody still buying the “Lexi’s fired” rubbish? No? Good!), and Lexi scrubbed her blog of all PWZ material to replace it with a very loud nondisclosure-contracted “silence.” Two artists at OPPOSITE ends of the spectrum and you managed to piss off BOTH?? Brilliant! PERHAPS THE MESSAGE HERE IS THAT DEVOTED, INFLUENTIAL, OUTSPOKEN ARTISTS WHO SINK THEIR BLOOD, SWEAT, AND TEARS INTO THEIR JOBS GET RATHER CROSS WHEN THEY’RE JERKED ROUND. I’m curious what it’s going to take to crack good-natured Ray, who flew 6000 miles to promote your film while you sat on that ticking bomb.

As for those who HAVE seen Lexi’s cut, Deborah Del Prete (producer of Frank Miller’s highly anticipated “The Spirit") said she loved it and thinks it will really please fans. Another source (since lost to me) posted to a message board: “A bunch of us have seen her cut and are aware of the changes the studio wants to make and trust me, no Punisher fan would agree with those changes. If the suits would have any balls at all, they would find a dozen hardcore Punisher fans on the web, invite them to a screening of the director’s cut and a screening of the studio’s cut, to see which they prefer.” Which, incidentally, is what Lexi had proposed not terribly long before she went “silent.” Anybody else claiming to have a negative review of Lexi’s cut invariably turns out to be another Lionsgate “insider”. Would Lionsgate care to remind us why their own employees are so keen to dash to the press slagging off their company’s property?!

LIONSGATE: Stop jerking EVERYBODY around. YOU are responsible for the bad publicity this production continues to suffer. This isn’t something you simply “blame the director for” and “fix in post” with “the Hulk editor” and a clapped-on metal score. You might start by repairing a few bridges you burnt. Countdown to 5 December US release, tick follows tock, GO!

TOM JANE: If PWZ tanks, we’ll all join you in a collective “thanks for the piece of sh-t, Lionsgate!” But do be fair with your pre-release criticism.

TIM BRADSTREET & STEVE GAINER: You both handled disagreements with admirable civility. Now why can’t EVERYBODY do that??

PUNISHER FANS: It ain’t about Jane vs Stevenson. Sh-t flows uphill, and LGF has rained it back down on them both. If you liked Lexi’s vision for Frank Castle and the new redband trailers showing her footage, you may yet like the finished product. Just keep your umbrellas handy till the shower of B.S. clears.

...and feel free to copy this message anyplace it might help. Thanks. I’m out.