The new Punisher hails from Rome...

Ray Stevenson or as you might better know him, the guy who plays Titus in Rome has been cast as the new Frank Castle in the Punisher sequel. He replaces Thomas Jane who pulled out in May because of fears he had over the direction the franchise was going in. This delayed the production on the movie for a couple of months as studio execs hurried to find a new Frank Castle so they could still release their movie in 2008. I actually thought for a while that Stevenson's Rome co-star James Purefoy would have been a great choice to replace Thomas Jane (who they really should have begged to return in all honesty) but they went for Stevenson instead, who I'm not altogether familiar with. Hooligans director Lexi Alexander, who I believe will become the first female to ever direct a comic-book movie is according to Latino Review helming the flick like we reported last month. Jigsaw is said to be the villain of the piece which isn't much of a suprise considering he is the biggest foe of Castle. Didn't care much for the first Punisher movie but I thought Thomas Jane did a great job in the leading role. Maybe with a new cast and talent this sequel might be something of an improvement on the first movie but I'm not entirely convinced by the choice of director.