Marvel’s The Punisher flopped twice at the box office (even though the second movie is great) but they haven’t given up on the murderous vigilante. According to Deadline, Criminal Minds showrunner Ed Bernero has adapted the comic for a pilot commitment from Fox. The series would be an “an hour-long procedural” which would see Frank Castle (aka The Punisher) “as a rising star detective with the New York Police Department” who moonlights as a vigilante, “seeking justice for those the system has failed.” This character is also known as Dexter Morgan or Daredevil. Seriously, why not just adapt Daredevil? That movie flopped too and instead of cop procedural, you’d have a courtroom procedural. The unoriginality of network TV would prevail! Fox is also developing a series based on the DC comics hero The Spectre. I hope the character’s day job is in a hospital.
Marvel has already sent their comic series Powers to FX. The studio is also developing the TV series AKA Jessica Jones (based on the comic Alias), The Hulk (produced by Guillermo del Toro), Cloak and Dagger, Mockingbird, and Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.
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your use of terms like “flop” and “even though the second movie is great” makes you really fucking stupid
A flop is the financial outcome of the film. A person’s opinion of the movie can be different from how well a movie did at the box office. This is where many “cult” films come from.
Yeah, the Jane one definitely wasn’t a flop: it cost $33 million to make and made around $56 worldwide. Warzone, however, cost $35 million to make and made only around $10 million at the box office. Now that’s a flop.
i think there’s a huge difference between frank castle and dexter morgan character-wise, one punishes criminals that no one else does and the other kills them to appease his murderous needs without the guilt, besides dexter came way after frank castle, so it’s safer to say that dexter morgan is a bit like frank castle and not the other way around. i’ll give this show the benefit of the doubt until i watch it, just hope it has good writers.
Sure the characters are different, but the premise of the SHOW (as reported) is similar to the SHOW Dexter. The premise of the show is NOT the premise of the comic book character. So in that sense, the idea for the show is derivative of Dexter.
Not really, The Punisher is a criminal who hunts criminals, and feels justified in doing so.
Completely different to Dexter who’s a serial killer who only kills criminals, and who works as a police lab tech. And has a sister in the police force to and so on.
Basically Frank Castle lives in a criminal world 24/7 and lets the little fish go to catch the big fish.
I hope they will include the following allies in this Punisher television series:
G. W. Bridge, Stuart Clarke, Lynn Michaels, Microchip, Henry Russo, Martin Soap, Joan, Mr. Bumpo, Spacker Dave, Lt. Molly Von Richtofen, Yorkie Mitchell, Jen Cooke, Kathryn O’Brien, Nick Fury, Steve Goodwin
I look forward to seeing the following villains in this Punisher television series:
Barracuda, Bushwacker, Hitman, Jigsaw, Ma Gnucci, The Russian, The Rev, Jigsaw, The Kingpin, The Holy, Elite, Mr. Payback, Nicky Cavella, Finn Cooley, Maginty, William Rawlins, Tony Pizzo, Cristu Bulat, Tiberiu Bulat, Robert Hellsgaard
And there comes the List People.
Goldberg has just proven he has a terrible taste in films by saying the second movie is “great”. Great? it was AWFUL. At least the Tom Jane movie was decent, Warzone was just an abomination.
Actually, I think the Punisher has flopped three times at the theaters. But who’s counting?
Thanx JLC for remmebering there ‘ve been 3 Punishers. Lundgren, Jane and Stevenson. Not that the Lundgren version was any good.
I haven’t made any comments on this site because I just don’t like wasting my time commenting on useless things. However, when I read what Matt Goldberg wrote I had to comment to say that he is completely idiotic, his taste in movies is astounding, and his reviews and articles are diabolically horrible. Not to mention the extremely cheesy, stupid, cringe-worthy jokes and puns he’s written in some of his articles. Sorry I had to get that off my chest. Anyway, I agree with the other cimmense here.
Or comments rather
I read a very similar article that this clearly rips off. Good job Matt.
On a side note this did make me think of a sweet law and order type show starring the punisher as the law and daredevil as the order. Now that kind of team up would just blow my socks off
Great news, let’s hope this TV series doesn’t get cancelled after Season 1 if it turns out to be awesome.
The second movie was great? I officially will not read any more movie reviews from you Matt. Terrible.
I agree that Daredevil would make a good series (wasn’t it tried before?). But I also think that Moon Knight would be a good fit for Fox or, if you want to grit it up, FX.
No matter what you want to compare this show’s premise to, one of the essential aspects of the Frank Castle character is that he has no alter-ego like Bruce Wayne/Batman, Matt Murdock/Daredevil, or even Police Lab Tech Dexter/Serial Killer Dexter. As was pointed out by Alex, Castle lives his whole life in the criminal world, one he despises, thus his entire existence has been given over to The Punisher. Why bother making an adaptation if you’re just going to change this central characteristic of the character? Find another one of the myriad of comic book characters to adapt that fits this premise more easily.
So because they couldn’t get the Punisher right in 2 lame movies now they are not gonna get right it in a tv series.
not too bright people, not too bright.
war zone was pretty fun. i’m not saying it’s a great movie for anyone to go and see. but if you enjoy seeing the punisher do what he does best, and are able to withstand some story changes..you might enjoy it. i did.
How can you make a show about the Spectre? Shouldn’t you have a Green Lantern show first?