In an exclusive interview with MTV, Jane talks about his own experience playing Frank castle in the 2004 Punisher as well as his feelings on the follow up/reboot, Punisher: Warzone..
When Thomas Jane was approached to star in Lexi Alexander's Punisher movie, he declined citing "creative differences". In this interview with MTV he tells us why, among plenty of other things...
"My interest has always been based more in reality than in superhero fiction, and with the original 'Punisher' I very much pushed them to try to make a movie that was more like 'Death Wish' or 'Taxi Driver' than 'Spider-Man,'" Jane told MTV News. "The strengths of 'The Punisher' that I did lie in the reality that we were able to bring to the character, and the weaknesses of 'The Punisher' I did were all based on people trying to make this a 'comic book movie'—with funny characters and goofball s--t that has no place in a 'Punisher' film."
"'Punisher 2' went more in the direction of goofball comic-book world than in reality," he said. "The portraits of Punisher that Tim Bradstreet did, that’s the movie I want to see. [Those portraits] have a reality, grit and truth to them, and I think every 'Punisher' fan out there agrees with me. That’s what I was pushing for and that’s why I dropped out of 'Punisher 2'—because I’m not going to make a 'comic book movie.' It’s just doing a disservice to Frank Castle."
"Frank Castle has not got his due in the film world," said Jane. "I feel like it's been left unfinished."
"['The Dark Knight'] made $500 billion at the box office, so I felt vindicated—because everybody in the business who was familiar with what I was trying to do with 'Punisher 2' recognized that as the tone I was going for in 'Punisher 2,'" explained Jane. "Now that somebody actually accomplished that and put it on film and it received that response from the audience—[that] validates the idea that a Frank Castle movie needs to be a gritty, reality-based film."
"Everyone gets it backwards," he said. "The 'Punisher' comic is striving for a sense of reality. They’re not striving for a sense of 'comic book.' So in the film, you can actually take the reality element further—not the comic book element. You don’t want to strengthen the idea that it’s a comic book in film, because film gives you the chance to actually bring it one step closer to reality—and that's the direction that 'Punisher' wants to go in."
Well. I have to say I'm not too sure what the heck Jane is on about here! I mean I though Punisher: Warzone was a steaming pile of shit and I much preferred Jane's effort, but wasn't his movie the one with the silly comic relief characters? Warzone at least attempted gritty..well, it had peoples heads exploding, and called it gritty.
What do you think? Should The Punisher distance himself from the comic book universe? I mean, he does interact with the super heros, even if he isn't one of them. I think it might be better to embrace his comic roots, while still being as gritty as possible. How cool would it be to see castle turn up in another Marvel movie?
Thanks to MTV for the quotes.
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