Sons of Anarchy creator discusses his unused Punisher: War Zone script

A script for Punisher: War Zone was written by Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter that was rejected, and he explained why.

Hollywood tried four times in total through more than three decades to make something of Marvel‘s killer vigilante The Punisher. Tinseltown saw the most success when Jon Bernthal stepped into the role of Frank Castle on Netflix, which is as far in the rearview as other attempts.

In 2008, the same year the sun was rising on the MCU with Iron Man, enough faith was invested in Frank to give him one more try at the box office. That try was Punisher: War Zone, a bloody affair that went through several scripts before one was settled on.

The Punisher movie that never got made

Kurt Sutter, the creator of FX’s Sons of Anarchy, revealed to ComingSoon.net he wrote an early draft – which he found “a really interesting process” as it was his first time working with Marvel.

But they passed on what he came up with because as Sutter believes, he took too many creative liberties:

"“And you know, I think in my draft of the movie, I ultimately took too many liberties in [f-ing] with the IP — and it was a rewrite. I was not asked to do all that much. I just saw the story in a different way. So ultimately, I wrote the script and they were like, we didn’t want this.”"

He wrote in new ideas that departed from the comics but, he says, were grounded ” a little bit more in the world as I knew it.” The big one was Jigsaw’s origin. Mafioso Billy Russoti, dubbed “the Beaut” because of his handsomeness, was disfigured by Castle when thrown through a plate-glass window.

In War Zone, Russoti (Dominic West) fell into the bottle grinder of a recycling plant, which Frank switched on, leaving Russoti to die. Obviously, he didn’t and sought cheap, slipshod plastic surgery while on the run that gave him the ugly patchwork of a face and earned him the name Jigsaw.

Sutter conceived the scene and a few smaller things that made it into the film:

"“And the result of that was the recycling plant. And so, yeah, I think that and like, maybe a couple of pieces of dialogue and one other story turn were the remnants of my draft.”"

The final draft of Punisher: War Zone is credited to Nick Santora, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway. It was directed by Lexi Alexander – who also has episodes of Arrow and Supergirl under her belt.

The film was intended as a sequel to the 2004 Punisher movie starring Thomas Jane. He bowed out to do The Mist and War Zone was reworked into a soft reboot. Ray Stevenson, in his first major film role, was cast as Jane’s replacement.

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Despite Sutter’s claim of liberties, a lot was done to stay true to the source material. Frank was back in New York, his wife and kids (and they alone) were killed by mobsters in Central Park, he was aided for the first time on screen by Micro (Wayne Knight), and Jigsaw was the villain.

None of it helped though. The film did very poorly – grossing just over $10 million on a $35 million budget – and The Punisher was back on ice until Marvel got the rights back and Netflix came calling. We might see him pop up in the MCU but Deadpool is seemingly the only R-rated hero Disney and Kevin Feige are interested in.

The skull logo becoming a controversial symbol as of late isn’t helping matters either.

Do you remember Punisher: War Zone? Did you see it or happen to like it? Was Ray Stevenson a good Frank Castle? If not, who’s your favorite person to take on the role? Let us know all your opinions down below.