Lately there was a lot of hoopla over whether Paddy Considine would be playing Jigsaw in the next Punisher movie. Well, AICN has confirmed (via Paddy’s forum) that he won’t:

It all means jack anyway. The original choice for Jigsaw dropped out, then they offerered it to me. I’m very dubious because the other films looked shite. Then whoever is responsible said that their original choice has decided to do it, therefore pulling my offer. The only blessing was that I didn’t waste an hour of my life reading the script. That be the way of the film world. And for the record, I thought GREEN STREET was a gigantic mess. Lucky escape.

Ouch! No nice words from Paddy over the next movie. The movie hasn’t been looking all that great since Tom Jane dropped out, but Kurt Sutter went into it a bit when he was interviewed by Collider:

What can you tell me about The Punisher? Is a straight continuation or is it a reboot like the new Hulk film?

Again, a little of both. It’s a reboot without discounting the events of the first Punisher. There are a lot of great blog sites that do a much better job at describing the story.

What is the biggest difference between this film and the last one? Except of course that there is a new leading man.

I’ll take this opportunity to say that I felt like Nick Santora and myself, who’s names were on the second big draft, got caught in the crossfire when Tom Jane was growing dissatisfied with the turn Punisher was taking. Tom lashed out at the script using it as his scapegoat for exiting the project. I’m not privy to the details, but I’d bet it had more to do with money than words. I like Tom Jane, I’ve had lunch with him, think he’s a decent guy. But I always felt that if Marvel really wanted to re-invent the franchise, you’d have to re-invent the Punisher. It would be like hiring Eric Bana or Bill Bixby for the Hulk reboot. Ray Stevenson is a terrific choice as Frank Castle. He’ll bring a depth and irony to the role that has not yet been explored by any other actor. I also think Lexi Alexander will shoot the hell out of it. From what I’ve been told, much of my draft is still intact and Halloway and Marcum’s rewrite is great. They have become Marvel’s go-to guys.

What will the tone of the film be like?

Tone? Ummmm, dark and violent.

Better than nothing, right?

This entry was posted on Monday, September 17th, 2007 at 12:47 pm and is filed under Marvel, Movies, News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.