'Punisher 2' loses another

The sequel to The Punisher lost Thomas Jane recently over concerns about the scripts quality. On May 15th, Jane sent a letter to Quint of Ain't it Cool News, part of which I've selected below to give context to the situation.

Punisher fans are already fighting an uphill battle as it is. And I’ve always felt a responsibility to fight that fight for them and with them so that Frank Castle gets the treatment he deserves.

I'm sharing this with you because I know you're a fan, like me, and you've got your ear to the ground, and because we seem to share the same sort of taste and passion when it comes to movies and stories that get us off. What I won't do is spend months of my life sweating over a movie that I just don't believe in.

Now it looks like director John Dahl is bowing out for nearly the same reason, according to this interview with Collider, Dahl didn't believe the script would do justice to the potential for the character. What that means exactly in relation to the comic isn't something I can comment on, because I am not personally familiar with it. Regardless, Jane - the star of the first film who did a fine job if you ask me - backed away because he didn't want another unfaithful and crap filled adaptation. Now Dahl is out essentially for the very same reason.

This presents an opportunity for the studio to stop jerking around with the script, get a real pro in there to fix it quickly (compared to what they'd be paying Jane to do the film, believe me, it'd be cheap and well worth the money) and entice them both back into the fold. Or, on the other hand, they could just keep screwing around until the sequel dives nose-first into the ground and explodes in a ball of raging fire.

That works too...for ending studio careers.

Topics: Film, Punisher 2, Thomas Jane, John Dahl