I don’t know how clear I was a while back when I did a Daredevil 2003 recast. I was casting a movie that was placed in 2003. Now, for this one, I’d like to be VERY clear. This is a recast of the 1989 Punisher movie. My cast is dated in 1989. It is not a current crop of actors. It is actors relevant in 1989; get it?
If someone asked me to choose a cast and a plot for the 1989 Punisher movie IN 1989 I would use this general plot:
Silvermane, head of the Maggia, has ordered a hit on some nameless guy for some unknown reason. He sends his 2 best hitmen do off the target. The men are “Tombstone,” an exceptionally strong and brutally vicious albino black man and Billy "The Beaut" Russo. Unfortunatlly, a woman and her two young children were in the wrong place at the wrong time and were killed by the hitmen for what they witnessed.
That was the family of ex-marine and current police officer, Frank Castle. Linus "Microchip" Lieberman (often known as Micro), who works unwillingly for Silvermane as a brilliant, beyond-his-time hacker, finds Castle and explains who the killers are and what they’re about. This sets up the revenge that we know and love.
Every scene where Punisher fights “Beaut” he scars him more and more, even dubbing him “Jigsaw.” Throw in a few awsome and bloody fights and the rest is given. Micro dies at the end, leaving Castle truly alone for the sequel.
Throughout the movie Castle sees his dead wife to whom he speaks. She, not Micro, serves as his conscience.*** The whole thing with his wife is him hallusinating because hes slowly going crazy, it's all in his head. By the end of the movie she no longer speaks to him, even when he seeks her out say, at her tombstone. All we see is her ghostly presence ***(is it her or symbolism?) looking sorrowingly upon her husband, who is now to far gone to ever return.
My cast: Could this rival Batman which entered theaters that same year?
Punisher as
I considered Robert De Niro, Mickey Rourke, and Bruce Willis. I’ll get to De Niro later. Rourke, as tough as he was, even back then, didn’t look like Castle to me. Willis, even though he did’nt resemble Frank to me either, it just seemed to copycat Die Hard, which came out the same year. So I chose
Eric Roberts (33yrs old): with so many amazing roles I’m only listing the ones that helped me with this decision and a few current ones so you can better understand who he is.
The Pope of Greenwich Village, Best of the Best, Best of the Best 2, The Prophecy II, The Dark Knight as Sal Maroni, Heroes as Thompson, an associate of Mr. Bennet, The Expendables.
Microchip as
A very hard one to cast but ultimately, when his name came across my mind, it was it good to try and find anyone else
John Candy (38 yrs old)
Planes, Trains & Automobiles, The Great Outdoors, Uncle Buck, and also spawned a brief comic book series published by Marvel Comics' Star Comics imprint. In more dramatic roles: Only the Lonely and as Dean Andrews Jr., a shady Southern lawyer in Oliver Stone's JFK.
Jigsaw as
Here’s where I felt De Niro belonged. He could be a great Punisher but if, well hell, he’s great as an anti-hero or the crazy villain.
Robert De Niro (46 yrs old) (with his brand of method acting he would be utterly terrifying)
Mean Streets, The Godfather, Part II. His performance earned him his first Academy Award, for Best Supporting Actor. He became the first actor to win an Academy Award speaking mainly a foreign. Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, Goodfellas, Cape Fear.
Tombstone (added in for kicks) as
I was juggling back and forth between Enie Hudson and Keith David. For a second I considered Bubba Smith due only to his height but, his acting is nowhere on the level of David and espessially far from Hudson
Keith David (33 yrs old)
Platoon, They Live, Road House, Dead Presidents and Requiem for a Dream, He is known most notably as the voice behind Goliath from Gargoyles and the title character in the Spawn animated series.
Silvermane as
The only one that can play him
Abe Vigoda (68yrs old)
The Godfather, The Don Is Dead, The Godfather: Part II, The Cheap Detective, Cannonball Run II, Look Who's Talking, Joe Versus the Volcano, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Underworld, Me and the Gods, A Brooklyn State of Mind
Maria Castle (Frank’s desceased wife) as
If you did not read how important I would make her role, go do that right now I’ll wait…
Good you’re back. It was either her or Annette Benning
Holly Hunter (31 yrs old)
Raising Arizona, Broadcast News, Always, and The Piano for which she won several acting awards, including an Academy Award for Best Actress. She also starred in the cable television series Saving Grace.