More on "Punisher: War Zone" from director Lexi Alexander

And here's more news on the Punisher: War Zone movie!


MORE ON ‘PUNISHER: WAR ZONE’ FROM DIRECTOR LEXI ALEXANDER
In this extended version of her first interview, she talks about staying true to Frank Castle’s look and the appeal of a well-placed headbutt

By Andy Serwin

Posted December 11, 2007 11:40 AM

“Punisher: War Zone” director Lexi Alexander is taking her version of the classic Marvel vigilante to the MAX.

Basing her take on Frank Castle on the Garth Ennis-penned, mature-readers version of the Punisher comic book from Marvel’s MAX imprint, Alexander—in her first interview about the film in a conference call from the set—spoke to Wizard Universe about what to expect from this dark, violent version of the skull-clad killer antihero.

“The last ‘Punisher’ movie wasn’t really relevant to us,” Alexander said of “War Zone,” which opens on Sept. 12, 2008. and stars Ray Stevenson (“Rome”) as Frank Castle. “There’s a lot of comparison, but none of the people on my team ever looked at it and said, ‘Okay, how can we be different or better?’ We just made our own film. I concentrated on really, really making it as close to the MAX series as possible. I think we really achieved that in both look and tone. When I look at the dailies, seriously I think I’m looking at the MAX comic book. I think the feeling of it will be much darker, and the comic fans will realize it’s more like the comic.”

Check out this Q&A with Alexander, who opens up about the forthcoming flick for the first time.

WIZARD: Does this movie take place in the Marvel Universe or in its own world?

ALEXANDER: Well, I think in the sense of the other Marvel characters, it’s definitely its own world. In terms of its location though, we do call it the Marvel New York because rather than setting it in the real New York, I wanted to have a bit of a surreal feeling.

Will this be a hard-R “Punisher” and if so, what sort of guidelines has the studio established regarding how violent it can be?

ALEXANDER: Well, it’ll definitely be a hard R. Luckily Lionsgate has been great about that. They haven’t given me any guidelines in terms of violence. I think that they’re a really good studio to make a violent movie with. I really like violent movies. [Laughs]

Are the challenges of making a bigger picture like “Punisher: War Zone” more than that of a picture like “Green Street Hooligans”?

ALEXANDER: I think there are advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that there are a lot more toys and it’s a bigger crew. There are just more resources. The disadvantage is that the more money you get the more responsibility you have, the more people that you have to answer to. So you have all kinds of people that have a say in how this movie should be or giving me input on where I can go and where I can’t go. I think that I got really, really lucky for this being my first studio movie and having people who really believe in me and really haven’t been riding me to death. I usually know from other filmmakers that on their first film they hardly make any decision by themselves. I got really lucky.

What’s the significance to the subtitle “War Zone”?

ALEXANDER: When we were discussing titles, and obviously Marvel has a huge input on that, we wanted to go with something that the fans will recognize as a title and when they suggested a few; “War Zone” seemed like the one that fit this one. In particular it had something to do with the ending. It’ll make more sense once you’ve seen the film, but I think the ending really justifies the title “War Zone.”

How much hand-to-hand fighting do you plan on having Frank Castle engage in, or will most of the action be gunplay?

ALEXANDER: I think that it’s about 70 percent gunplay and 30 percent hand-to-hand combat. The first thing that I did really didn’t have anything to do with my background, although I love hand-to-hand combat and I love putting on these fights—that’s the world that I come from in terms of martial arts as well as from the stunt world. But when I make a film it’s about the character, and when I studied his biography the great thing about Castle is that he’s skilled in so many things. Being a Force Recon guy, you learn all kinds of martial arts skills and so you have pieces of every single martial art there is, but he’s also mainly focused on the guns.

Your storyline incorporates elements and characters from Garth Ennis’s “Welcome Back Frank” comic storyarc. Why was the decision made to bring in Jigsaw, who is not a part of that storyline?

ALEXANDER: The first script I received from Lionsgate already had Jigsaw in it. At that point I wasn’t really familiar with where Jigsaw came into the series, but he was there and he was the antagonist, he was the villain. I fell in love with this character. I think he’s a great villain and I wanted to keep him. So I don’t think that we strictly went for one storyline in the comic books. I think that we took parts of the world out of Frank Castle and tried to make the best story possible.

What makes actors Ray Stevenson and Dominic West perfect for their respective roles as Frank and Jigsaw?

ALEXANDER: I mean, they’re really, really perfect. Every day we stand behind the monitor and we just shake our heads and look at these guys, going, “Holy sh--. How lucky did we get?” Ray Stevenson is incredibly intense. Not only does he totally look like the Punisher, he’s really, really intense. He’s kind of got his life on his face. He’s not a pretty boy. You definitely see that he’s had a life. He’s really, really skilled. He teaches all of us now about guns and machine guns and bullets and all of that stuff. He’s very physical as well. On the other hand, Dominic is just a really skilled actor. I think that people will see a side of him that they haven’t seen because we really use all of his talent. This guy is a real British theater actor. He can have a huge range. He nails this part like there is no tomorrow. I think that people will be speaking about this forever and he says this and we all say that this is the best he’s ever done.

As a former fighting champ, how do you feel about handing out ass-kicking tips to your stars, and what’s been the most brutal scene to work on so far?

ALEXANDER: [Laughs] I have a lot of people hired that teach these guys the fighting and do the fight choreography. Once in a while it’s quite fun because I will jump in and I see that a punch isn’t selling or a certain elbow hit doesn’t sell. The guys shake their heads because they tower above me and I say, “Can you turn around and do it like this?” Ray will say, “I can’t believe this little midget is showing me how to fight, but she’s right.” So there’s a lot of humor about the fact that they think I can kick their ass, which is good for a director, so that they’ll all listen to me. In terms of the most brutal thing, I think that’s been the location that we were in two weeks ago. It was part of the finale and it was really, really cold and a toxic building and we all had to have these masks on, which didn’t help a lot because we all got sick anyway. It was toxic and so we basically had to shoot the entire time with these oxygen masks on except the actors—they didn’t get any.

Do you have a favorite kill that you can talk about without giving too much away?

ALEXANDER: I do have a favorite kill. Without giving too much away, I can say that it has to do with a headbutt.

Are you going to stick with the iconic costume for the Punisher in this film?

ALEXANDER: Yes, I am. But there have been over the years many different costumes. I think that we’ve taken the elements that we like the best from each of those costumes. I think that if you see a picture of him there are similarities to some of them, but not specifically one. Basically what I’ve taken is the best elements from each of these costumes over the years.

Is there an issue of the Punisher comic book that you can point to and say that you were inspired from?

ALEXANDER: God, there have been so many. I feel like I’ve read hundreds and hundreds when I first took on this job. Something that stayed in my mind which isn’t in this film, but I remember reading it and saying, “Okay, yes. I’m going to make this movie.” It was Frank Castle, he was still in his street clothes. His wife had just died and a neighbor comes over with a bottle of whiskey and tries to comfort him and in that conversation the neighbor admits that he’s having an affair with his secretary, and Castle’s face just changes and he says, “I lost my wife and you’re telling me that you’re screwing around on your wife?” Then he just says, “Run.” The neighbor doesn’t run and so he throws him through the window and basically trashes him. I thought, “Now that’s a cool guy.” I tried to put that in the movie, but it didn’t fit anywhere. I remember the turning point for me with that, saying, “Now that’s great writing.”

Meet the new Punisher: Ray Stevenson

Who the hell is Ray Stevenson? Some guy who acted on HBO's "Rome"? Sorry, but I never caught it. From the picture featured though, he certainly looks like he COULD be the Punisher. And he looks like a grizzled veteran, a more mature version of Tom Jane, which would suit movie continuity!

Anyway, yet another comic book movie I wanna see.


MEET THE NEW PUNISHER: RAY STEVENSON
In an exclusive interview, the former ‘Rome’ star talks about stepping into the ‘War Zone’

By Chris Ward

Posted December 7, 2007 5:00 PM

Screw rays of light—what comic movies need is a Ray of darkness.

2008’s “Punisher: War Zone” from Lionsgate introduces Ray Stevenson as the third—and darkest—Punisher to ever explode on the big screen.

The actor best known for playing Titus on HBO’s “Rome” hopes to bring the same bloodthirsty brutality to Marvel’s favorite one-man army, Frank Castle.

“We’re going to have him in such a dark place,” declares Stevenson in a leathery English baritone, speaking to Wizard from the Montreal set, “and exacting so many acts of violence upon the irredeemable. Not to take away from anything Tom Jane has done, and I think that [previous] movie stands up on its own, but my take will be different. It’s a newer, darker version.”

Here’s what you need to know about Ray Stevenson and the new, improved Punisher.

DON’T CALL IT A COMEBACK
After a bevy of script rewrites, directorial changes and the Punisher himself, Thomas Jane, dropping out of “Punisher 2,” a new direction was taken: Napalm everything and just start over. So forget all you know about Dolph Lundgren’s mumbling and John Travolta getting dragged behind a car—“War Zone” is a fresh start.

“This is in no way to be seen as ‘Punisher 2,’ or even ‘Punisher 3,’” says Stevenson. “It’s going full-on for the Garth Ennis and Tim Bradstreet take on Frank Castle. We’re staying very, very true to the authenticity of the comic books. The whole look of the film, the mise en scène, has that light and dark, harsh sodium colors. Frank Castle is definitely the predator.”

THE PLOT THICKENS
“Punisher: War Zone” may start the franchise from scratch, but don’t expect yet another lengthy origin yarn—the bullets start flying before you can say, “Duck, bitches!” In “War Zone,” Frank Castle is already on the feds’ Most Wanted List, having disposed of hundreds of scumbags. So when he accidentally kills an innocent and inadvertently creates his archenemy, Jigsaw, by turning a mobster’s face into scrambled eggs, you could say Frank’s not exactly batting 1,000 at the film’s start. But with the odds on his side (in the form of unlimited ammo), Frank sets out to make things right his way.

THE JIG IS UP
It looks like Jigsaw from Lionsgate’s “Saw” franchise is going to have some company on the backlot. For the first time, Punisher’s sewn-together archnemesis Jigsaw (aka Billy the Beaut, before he eats a faceful of glass) appears with brother Looney Bin Jim in tow. Baddies like the Kitchen Irish are also pulled right from Garth Ennis’ series, as well as several “amalgamations” of Punisher cretins, according to Stevenson. “Garth’s exposé of the human condition, for an actor, is phenomenal,” says Stevenson. “So we’re really going for the genius of Ennis [in this film]. We are definitely capturing the soul and the essence of it.”

KICK ARSE ARSENAL
“War Zone” is a unique film, in that the Punisher lets his trusty slingshot do the talking. We’re lying, of course: Stevenson has so many weapons in the new film that even Charlton Heston might say, “Eaaasssy there, pal!”

“We’ve got a very, very specialized hand cannon—possibly the meanest piece of weaponry I’ve ever seen,” smiles Stevenson. “It’s a Smith & Wesson .50-caliber handgun. Forget your .44 Magnum, this will stop a tank.” Through working and training with members of the Marine Corps, Stevenson cites the military as being instrumental in designing new weapons for the film. “We’ve designed a very special knife for Frank, loosely based on some weaponry the boys doctored for themselves in Vietnam,” says Stevenson. “He’s not there to knife fight with people when he pulls this out. It takes people apart.”

DANGEROUS DIRECTION
When you’re making a movie about an ass-kicking antihero, why not put an ass-kicking director at the helm? Director Lexi Alexander knows a thing or two about how violence should really look: She’s also a world-champion kickboxer. “She’s got the mind of a warrior, the mind of a fighter,” says Stevenson. “She knows what it’s like to stand toe-to-toe with somebody and know they’re going to try to hit you as hard as they possibly can, and you’re not there to f--- about—so she knows it when she sees it.” Still, Stevenson reiterates that “War Zone” is not a “martial arts movie,” even though Frank Castle will be forced to put his street-fightin’ skills to the test. “Frank’s not a poser. He’s not there to d----swing and threaten people,” asserts Stevenson. “When he turns up, he exacts his own brand of vengeance. He’s not there to intimidate you by saying, ‘My gun’s bigger than your gun.’ He’s just there to put you out of everyone else’s misery.”

When freelance writer Chris Ward shows up, he exacts his own brand of vengeance, in the form of really mean words.

Director Lexi Alexander talks "Punisher: War Zone"

I didn't even KNOW there was going to be another Punisher movie! I know they were talking about the sequel a couple of years back, but there was nothing concrete. So to find out that not only is there going to be a sequel, but it's going to be as violent as the MAX Punisher series? OoOooOO! Can't wait.


DIRECTOR LEXI ALEXANDER TALKS ‘PUNISHER: WAR ZONE’
The filmmaker discusses staying faithful to the comic and how her martial arts expertise influenced the fight scenes

By Andy Serwin

Posted December 6, 2007 4:10 PM

“Punisher: War Zone” director Lexi Alexander is taking her version of the classic Marvel vigilante to the MAX.

Basing her take of Frank Castle on the Garth Ennis-penned, mature-readers version of the Punisher comic book from Marvel’s MAX imprint, Alexander—in her very first interview about the film on a conference call from the set—spoke to Wizard Universe about what to expect from this dark, violent version of the skull-clad killer antihero.

“The last ‘Punisher’ movie wasn’t really relevant to us,” Alexander said of “War Zone,” which opens on Sept. 12, 2008, and stars Ray Stevenson (“Rome”) as Frank Castle. “There’s a lot of comparison, but none of the people on my team ever looked at it and said, ‘Okay, how can we be different or better?’ We just made our own film. I concentrated on really, really making it as close to the Max series as possible. I think we really achieved that in both look and tone. When I look at the dailies, seriously I think I’m looking at the Max comic book. I think the feeling of it will be much darker, and the comic fans will realize it’s more like the comic.”
Check out this Q&A with Alexander, and get a look at the first pic from the movie, courtesy of Lions Gate!

WIZARD: Would you say that “Punisher: War Zone” is set in the world of the other Marvel movies?

ALEXANDER: I think in the sense of the other Marvel characters, it’s definitely is its own world. In terms of location, though, we call it the Marvel New York. Rather than setting it in the real New York, I wanted it to have a surreal feeling.

What can viewers expect in terms of the violence and rating from your take on the Punisher?

ALEXANDER: Well, it definitely will be a hard R. Luckily, Lionsgate’s been great about it. They haven’t given me any guidelines in terms of violence. I think they have a great studio to make a violent movie. And I really like violent movies. [Laughs]

How would you describe the working experience on your first big studio film?

ALEXANDER: I think there’s advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is there’s a lot more toys, a bigger crew and more resources. The disadvantage is the more money you get, the more responsibility you have, the more people you have to answer to. There’s all kinds of people who have a say in how this movie should be, or giving me input on where I can go and where I can’t go. I think I got really, really lucky for this being my first studio movie and having people who really believe in me. I know from other directors that on their first studio films, they hardly got to make any decisions themselves, so I got really, really lucky.

Does the “War Zone” title have any relevance to anything from the comics?

ALEXANDER: When we were discussing titles, obviously Marvel had a huge input on that, and we wanted to go with something fans would recognize as a title. And when they suggested that, “War Zone” seemed to fit in with what we were doing, especially with the ending. The ending justifies the title.

Did you have a favorite kill in this movie?

ALEXANDER: I do have a favorite kill, but I don’t want to give too much away. Let’s just say it has to do with a headbutt.

How did Jigsaw wind up in this film?

ALEXANDER: “The first script I received had Jigsaw already in it, I wasn’t familiar with where he came in in the series. But he was there, he was the antagonist, the villain; I fell in love with this character. I think he’s a great villain, and I wanted to keep him. I don’t think we strictly went for one storyline in the comics. We took parts from the world of Frank Castle and tried to make the best story possible.

Coming from your background as a martial arts champ and a stuntwoman, did you ever step to change something?

ALEXANDER: “You know, I have a lot of people hired to do the fights and fight choreography. But once in a while, it’s quite funny because I’ll jump in. I’ll see that a punch doesn’t sell, or an elbow hit doesn’t sell, and the guys shake their head because they tower above me. Ray Stevenson, he can’t believe this little midget is showing him how to fight. But that’s a good feeling for a director. So they all listen to me. The most brutal thing about the whole movie was the location. Part of the finale was filmed in a cold and toxic building. We had to film wearing oxygen masks the whole time. Except for the actors; they didn’t get any! [Laughs]

Keep tuned to wizarduniverse.com for more on “Punisher: War Zone”!

Catching up on reading TPBs

No new updates from Wizard Universe today, unfortunately...nothing that really interests me much. There's an interview with Ed Brubaker, Mike Carey and Chris Yost about the latest storyline, Messiah Complex, that's going to be the prevalent storyarc in the X-Men titles, but I've been weaned off the X-Universe for quite a long time now that it doesn't really interest me much anymore. The last real storyarc/series I read was Morrison and Quitely's run on New X-Men...and not only was that ages ago, but I didn't even get the single issues and resorted to purchasing the HCs and TPBs to read the entire storyline! Oh yeah, must remind myself to save up for that New X-Men Omnibus...I really love those Marvel Omnibuses which are something like the DC Absolute Editions, though with less extras but more issues collected.

I'd finished reading Preacher Vol.7, so I'm about 70 to 80 per cent through the entire series. Jarrod from Classic Comics rang me yesterday evening to inform me that Preacher Vol.8 is in store now, so once I get it, just another two more TPBs to read and I'd have read the Preacher series for the third time. It gets better everytime I read it...learn so much more! I'd really love for one day to have loads of free time to read the entire series from cover to cover in one go. Would take me a good portion of the day methinks. But hell, it'd be worth it.

Obviously, I needed something else to read in the meantime, since I didn't know when Preacher Vol.8 was going to be available, so I started on Brian K. Vaughan's Y - The Last Man Vol.8. I've got the seven previous volumes back in Singapore and I THOUGHT I'd remember enough of the story to make reading the latest TPB worthwhile...but alas, it felt like just jumping into the series midway with not much of an idea what had happened previously before! That's one of the reasons why I decided to get the ENTIRE Preacher series again here...I wanted to have the whole collection to read in the one go. Y - The Last Man is absolutely brilliant as well and well worth getting the entire series too. Hmmm...priorities.

I started on the Ed Brubaker run of Daredevil as well last night, which is kinda nice because while it was good to have some previous idea of what happened in the past in Brian Michael Bendis' run, it certainly wasn't necessary to know ALL that had transpired. Got through the first three issues in the TPB and it's as good as the critics have said. I really love the whole notion of Daredevil's secret identity being outed in the press, then everyone looking at him as if he's this street urban vigilante who fights crime at night but fights evil in the court of law in the day. Which is exactly what he does...but now with the added "twist" that people know and shoot accusatory glares at him!

It's funny seeing how Murdock keeps denying that he's Daredevil, but then proceeds to prove that he's anything BUT a blind man. Take for instance: Murdock is thrown in jail and he keeps telling the prison warden that he's not Daredevil. So the prison warden, who's been bought off, sets a trap for him in which a group of superthugs all jump Murdock, hoping to shiv him. A couple of panels later, the prison guards bust in and they find everyone bruised, bloody and down for the count...all except Murdock, who's ATTEMPTING to hide in the corner, completely unharmed. Murdock's excuse? That the thugs (who ALL work for the same person) just started beating up on each other and in the panic, he was trying to find some corner to escape the violence. Yeah, I'm sure they'd believe that.

There are too many incidents in the prison where the prisoners all start heading to the infirmary, one by one. And is it a massive coincidence that these prisoners all have had run-ins with Murdock BEFORE being sent to the hospital? It doesn't look good for Murdock's secret identity, but I love the way that it's playing out this way. Oh! In the last panel of the third issue, we see a man snapping the neck of a wannabe rapist. A bunch of cops see this happening and they rush up to arrest the man. The man opens up his trenchcoat and then puts his arms up in the air, asking for the cops to arrest him and take him to prison...the same prison that Murdock is in.

All this is well and good, until they focus in on the man's chest and there's this eerie huge fricking skull on his chest. You guessed it...the Punisher wants to go to prison! Does he want to save Daredevil, his one time ally? Or does he want to kill him, since Daredevil has been his long-time nemesis...not nemesis in terms of "I want to kill you because you're my enemy", but nemesis because both of them don't agree on the way to deal with villains. Daredevil wants villains to go through due process in a court of law, while the Punisher, well, he wants to punish them by killing them all and letting God sort them out.

I can't wait to read the rest tonight!