If it wasn't bad enough that Thomas Jane bowed out of the sequel to The Punisher because he was ashamed of how poor the first film was, and upset at how terrible the sequel was shaping up to be, and having John Dalh pass on directing for virtually the same reasons, now the studio has put the finishing touches on flushing this would-be franchise down the drain by giving it a title: The Punisher: Welcome Back Frank.

Look, I'm all for giving people a chance even when it looks like all signs point to total disaster, but this is just silly. Jane is one of the few actors I respect because he busted his ass making The Punisher, and walked on the sequel because he didn't believe in it, not because he wanted more money, control, or was lazy. The guy is anything but an ego job.

I'm the last person to ever want to share creative control with actors or directors because they have their own roles to play and their own talents and specialties, while the writers specialty and talent is to write the damn story without interference. In this case, I'd be happy to hand over some level of creative control to Jane if he feels that strongly about it. There is a lot of potential for these films for exploring really dark stories and lots of R-rated goodness and an advocate for quality is something many films sorely need - and I'm not talking about the standard "we want it to be great" cheering BS. You've got to bitch and push back to make sure the crap stays on the cutting room floor.

Not only is it apparent that the studio has no intention of taking risks and making a great film instead of merely a "hopefully profitable" one, not only are they willing to let go brand name talent rather than take a little time to find a good writer and make this a film worth remembering, they can't even come up with a good damn title for it.

Stupid. Just stupid.

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