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Rob Zombie Almost Directed ‘The Punisher’ Sequel During Thomas Jane’s Run

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Punisher

Thomas Jane starred as Frank Castle aka The Punisher back in 2004. The vigilante badass, took on John Travolta in the film. He also took on the famous Punisher baddie, The Russian in a bare-knuckle brawl. The film did okay in the box office. Nothing to write home about but it didn’t suck either landing at $54 million with a budget of $33 million. When a sequel was discussed, Rob Zombie was brought on as a potential director for the follow-up.

Unfortunately, Zombie’s Punisher never made it to screen, but the ideas were in place and Thomas Jane was very much onboard with the gnarly direction that Zombie wanted to take things in. A departure from the first film, into a more stylized and gory take, the folks at the studio turned down the idea entirely. They even let go of Jane and went with Ray Stevenson in Punisher: Warzone. That entry did poorly with only $10 million at the box office.

While chatting at Fanboy Expo Knoxville, Jane spilled the beans on Zombie’s potential take on The Punisher. Sadly, as mentioned above it got trashed along with Jane’s role.

“There were a couple of iterations of Punisher 2. One of them was with Rob Zombie directing, which I thought would have been interesting. Jane said. “But that was one iteration. We were batting around script ideas and trying to find a new director. The Marvel folks wanted to go with a different director, and that was their choice, so it was like, ‘Who is that person going to be?'”

Ironically, Zombie did end up with a song on the Punisher: War Zone soundtrack with the exclusive track “War Zone.”

The synopsis for The Punisher went like this:

This dark action film, based on the comic book series, follows FBI agent Frank Castle (Thomas Jane) as he transforms into the vengeful Punisher after criminals murder his family, including his wife and son. Castle is gravely injured in the attack and believed to be dead by Howard Saint (John Travolta), the crime lord who ordered the hit. Following his recovery, Castle becomes a heavily armed vigilante who will stop at nothing to exact revenge on Saint and dismantle his underworld empire.

I would have loved to see Zombie’s version of The Punisher. I mean, gore for sure. brutal fights for sure, a pitch black-hearted character for sure, and psychedelic neons and gels lighting the entire film for sure. What could have been?

Punisher

Check out the closest thing we got to a Thomas Jane starring Punisher sequel below. The short film was directed by Phil Joanou and produced by Adi Shankar. The result was amazing and made me severely wish that Jane had made a Punisher trilogy. The next bad guy up would have been Wilson Fisk himself, The Kingpin.

Would you have liked to have seen Zombie direct Jane in a Punisher sequel?

Pssst. Watch the Punisher short film, you won’t regret it! Let us know what you thought about it.

Source: (Movie Web)

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Trailer for ‘The Exorcism’ Has Russell Crowe Possessed

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The latest exorcism movie is about to drop this summer. It’s aptly titled The Exorcism and it stars Academy Award winner turned B-movie savant Russell Crowe. The trailer dropped today and by the looks of it, we are getting a possession movie that takes place on a movie set.

Just like this year’s recent demon-in-media-space film Late Night With the Devil, The Exorcism happens during a production. Although the former takes place on a live network talk show, the latter is on an active sound stage. Hopefully, it won’t be entirely serious and we’ll get some meta chuckles out of it.

The film will open in theaters on June 7, but since Shudder also acquired it, it probably won’t be long after that until it finds a home on the streaming service.

Crowe plays, “Anthony Miller, a troubled actor who begins to unravel while shooting a supernatural horror film. His estranged daughter, Lee (Ryan Simpkins), wonders if he’s slipping back into his past addictions or if there’s something more sinister at play. The film also stars Sam Worthington, Chloe Bailey, Adam Goldberg and David Hyde Pierce.”

Crowe did see some success in last year’s The Pope’s Exorcist mostly because his character was so over-the-top and infused with such comical hubris it bordered on parody. We will see if that is the route actor-turned-director Joshua John Miller takes with The Exorcism.

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’28 Years Later’ Trilogy Taking Shape With Serious Star Power

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28 years later

Danny Boyle is revisiting his 28 Days Later universe with three new films. He will direct the first, 28 Years Later, with two more to follow. Deadline is reporting that sources say Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, and Ralph Fiennes have been cast for the first entry, a sequel to the original. Details are being kept under wraps so we don’t know how or if the first original sequel 28 Weeks Later fits into the project.

Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ralph Fiennes

Boyle will direct the first movie but it’s unclear which role he will take on in the subsequent films. What is known is Candyman (2021) director Nia DaCosta is scheduled to direct the second film in this trilogy and that the third will be filmed immediately afterward. Whether DaCosta will direct both is still unclear.

Alex Garland is writing the scripts. Garland is having a successful time at the box office right now. He wrote and directed the current action/thriller Civil War which was just knocked out of the theatrical top spot by Radio Silence’s Abigail.

There is no word yet on when, or where, 28 Years Later will start production.

28 Days Later

The original film followed Jim (Cillian Murphy) who wakes from a coma to find that London is currently dealing with a zombie outbreak.

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‘Longlegs’ Creepy “Part 2” Teaser Appears on Instagram

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Longlegs

Neon Films released an Insta-teaser for their horror film Longlegs today. Titled Dirty: Part 2, the clip only furthers the mystery of what we are in for when this movie is finally released on July 12.

The official logline is: FBI Agent Lee Harker is assigned to an unsolved serial killer case that takes unexpected turns, revealing evidence of the occult. Harker discovers a personal connection to the killer and must stop him before he strikes again.

Directed by former actor Oz Perkins who also gave us The Blackcoat’s Daughter and Gretel & Hansel, Longlegs is already creating buzz with its moody images and cryptic hints. The film is rated R for bloody violence, and disturbing images.

Longlegs stars Nicolas Cage, Maika Monroe, and Alicia Witt.

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