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I mentioned that there were at least a couple of comic-based movies coming out this Fall One of those was the previously discussed movie, the Spirit. The other one is Lionsgate films release, the Punisher: War zone . It is scheduled for a December 5th release. This is a sequel to the Punisher movie that starred Thomas Jane and John Travolta a few years back. Jane bailed on the sequel due to problems with the plot and Ray Stevenson was hired to take his place. Stevenson looks a lot like the character from the promo posters that I have seen so far, and the gritty setting of the movie (as seen from the trailers) looks more appropriate than the bright and sunny florida setting we were treated to in the last go around, however there were some bizarre stories circulating around this project until recently that gave the film more negative buzz than positive - never a good thing.

First was the rumor that the studio wanted a PG 13 cut of the movie ( a move influenced by the success of the PG13 Batman: The Dark Knight ) which had been shot as an intended rated R film, and that on top of that they wanted the director (Lexi Alexander) to be the one to butcher her own work! Second was the rumor that, in response to the studio wanting to re edit the film for a different rating, that the director, Alexander, had walked off the project and refused to be associated with it. Later it was confirmed that her distance from the project this past summer was due to her recent marriage. The damage seemed to have been done though.

Finally, there was the fact that the studio pushed back the release date of the movie a couple of times which tended to give some credence to the whole ‘editing-for-a-rating’ rumor. Even though it was given an R rating in the last few days, that doesn’t disprove the idea that the delays were initially due to the studio having second thoughts on the violent nature of the film and mulling over the possibility of toning it down.

All in all, I think that this is a case of a possibly decent December release comic book movie getting lost in a snow storm of controversy…

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