It appears that Kurt Sutter has decided to ditch on Punisher: War Zone. He was originally a writer for the project but now has decided to bail out in order to save face. We get the following scoop thanks to our friends at cinematical:
Kurt Sutter, one of War Zone’s writers, has elected to take his name off the project. Over on his blog, Sutter claims that not only does he not deserve credit, as his original script has been rewritten out of existence, but he no longer wants credit or any association whatsoever with the project. In fact, he has few kind words for the film whatsoever. In his words, War Zone is a “simple story, very obvious dialogue and the inclusion of as many characters from the anthology that a movie will allow.” It’s a very tight script, he notes, but not very unique and not something that he could take any pride putting his name on. Sutter’s dismissal of the current script earned him the ire of Punisher fans, though it is a bit perplexing as to why ducking out of WGA arbitration should earn you a death threat.
This is never a good sign. I do not care how many re-writes a project has, if it is still quality – you want your name on there. This appears to be a “jumping ship” scenario and I cannot say that I am surprised. Jain jumped ship, now Sutter joins the fray. This project is losing people faster than the bush administration (ba – dum, pshhhht).
What has me most concerned about this blog entry is the inclusion of as many characters as possible. Too many characters is the achilles heel of comic book movies and should ALWAYS be avoided at all costs. I am wondering how many characters they will bastardize with one fell swoop. I suppose we will wait and see.
International friends, are you still holding out hope for this, or is the writing on the wall?
