FAN CAST: The Punisher By Ozymandias

Crowe might be too big a name for Punisher, and he is too old (so is Stevensen). If it was about 10 years ago, around his Gladiator days, I can see it. I'd like to see what Misha Collins could do in this part, actually.

The only other one I can disagree with is Bushwacker. Statham blows.

I like the rest.

As for characters:

I've read Punisher with and without Micro, I prefer Frank without him. Micro was designed to serve as a conscience for Frank; Frank doesn’t need one. To do what he does I have a hard time believing he’d keep a guy around who had perpetually cold feet about the mission he set himself to. Frank protects and even has a soft spot for women and children, but he will kill at the drop of a hat once someone crosses that line he has drawn in his mind.

That was the whole reason that Ennis had Frank blow Micros head off in the first story of the Max run, to point out that he has really removed himself from humanity or the need of conscience. The man could kill his best and only friend without hesitation once he crossed that line. That set Ennis’ version as the definitive version of Frank Castle to me.

He is a man removed, and a man consumed. He has no illusions as to why he does it. It’s not for his family, though they were the last straw, it was the breaking of a man in the jungles of Vietnam. It was when a good man found that there was a darkness inside him; he enjoyed the fight, he liked the killing, he had honor, he had a code, but to say he does what he does solely out of vengeance is wrong. Frank does what he does because at his core he too is a sociopath and he knows it; that is why there is no deep soul searching for Frank… He knows what he’ll find there. A dead, hard core that has sloughed off the need to even be human, he has become death, he has made a deal with death, he punishes these men because he hates them. Ennis wrote it best Frank was always the Punisher. His family was just his last chance to turn down another path.

I see a Punisher film devoid of campiness, of super villain wannabes, of deep self introspection beyond the monotone of Frank’s sparse and practical narration, I see a movie where the fighting is purely reality based and grounded in military tactics turned against a man high of the power of a gun and no conscience to tell him no. I want to see a bleak landscape where the hero knows he’s not making a damn bit of difference; just bailing against the tide. He does it because on some sick level he needs it. Punisher is one of my favorite characters, because there is so much more that can be read into him.

Crow is too old and I don't like Microchip.The others are nice choices.

they ruined punisher in my eyes with war zone. they should have kept thomas jane and kept the concept like batman new films.

P.S. TYLER Blows more! ; D

Thanks UGH. I always get angry when I hear people dismiss Punisher as nothing more than a shoot 'em up comic. Sure it can be a mindless gore fest if the writer sees no more depth in the character than that, but in the hands of someone who is willing to read more deeply into Frank and expand on the reasons of who and why and what he is, like Ennis, you can get a damn good read.

As for casting I grudgingly do have to agree that of the three actors who have played Frank Tom Jane was the best. Jane was just stymied by a director that thought he was directing a western instead of a punisher movie and for some reason found Tampa as a good backdrop for it. Couple all that with the use of Welcome Back Frank, one of Ennis' weakest efforts, because his hands were still tied editorially by the Marvel Knights imprint, his style was better served under Max's loose editorial constants.

The level of violence in War Zone was better, as I believe that the Punisher is inherently violent and the results of his actions should not be sanitized. However, the camp factor and outright ignorance Lexi Alexander displayed insulted me. I want there to be stark realistic violence in Punisher, violence that makes you feel uncomfortable in its brutality and finality not cheer that someone got their face blown off. A History of Violence was the best film I've seen in recent years to capture what I mean. I saw AHV in theaters and during the dinner robbery people cheered for Vigo up until that final shot took of the robbers jaw... Then silence. No one expected something that brutal presented in a distinctly nonhollywood way. It was harsh. It was brutal. It was overkill. It was ugly. It slapped the audience in the face as if to say, "This isn't funny," Punisher needs that: violence unstylized; ugly and graphic and real.

Punisher could be a huge hit I am convinced of that, he just needs a director and screen writer that understands him and understands what he represents in all it disturbing connotations. And most of all he needs a studio that has the balls to turn lose the leash and be willing to accept controversy. Because if done right the movie will delve into the depths of a very dark mind, a mind that, frighteningly, a lot more of us identify with than we would like to admit.

That I do.

lol, and if Bardem ever bails on the role he can be replaced by his brother from another mother, Jeffery Dean Morgan: