"She's on her honeymoon" was a pretty good excuse as to why director Lexi Alexander wasn't attending Comic-Con this year to discuss and promote Punisher: War Zone, but there had already been so many rumblings about strained relations between her and the studio, Lionsgate. Trouble began months ago when Lexi started blogging, informing fans of some publicity materials Lionsgate sent for her approval.
Comic book movie fans everywhere love that stuff and gobbled it up. Lionsgate didn't appreciate the unauthorized marketing campaign. When the studio asked her to remove the pics, THEY say she went a little ballistic and that the overreaction would foretell of things to come. When other confrontations occurred, the kind that normally take place when producing a movie, sources said she was , "a bit like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" --amiable one time, and a raging storm at other times.
When Comic-Con rolled around, and Lexi's honeymoon plans conflicted, she decided NOT to change them. According to reports, she was not forbidden to come by Lionsgate, neither was she trying to send a message by her absence, but secretly the studio wasn't all that broken up about the no-show.
Reports hit Monday that Lionsgate took Lexi off the project all-together, and her usually prolific web site has been completely wiped clean except for a pic of the monkeys from "See no Evil," "Hear no Evil," "Speak no Evil," which in turn caused the entertainment news media to blow up the story--making it seem as though Lexi has no more influence on the movie. While it is true that Lionsgate has taken over the project, and there is indeed a new post-production team in place (and new composer), the movie has not been taken completely out of her hands. She is still contracted as a consultant on the film and is involved in further decision-making.
Ah, Hollywood. Always with the drama. Anyway, the fate of this movie is as yet undetermined, but all this crap can't help it. Other entertainment news outfits have already condemned it, calling it a direct-to-DVD movie, and saying that Dolph Lundgren's flick was better (ouch!), but we here at CBM like to give any decent attempt at a comic book movie a chance. So, we'll see. Look on the bright side, if the movie tanks, Marvel will get back its property and just reboot it in a couple years once again.