Guns Are So 2002

By Rebecca Winters

When THOMAS JANE talks about The Punisher, a comic-book movie that opens next summer, you get the sense he's not talking about the no-dessert kind of punishment. Jane plays Frank Castle, a moody, haunted ex-Marine, now superhero, whose wife was killed by a Mafia boss (played by John Travolta). Hence his penchant for the punitive. The actor spent nine months working with Navy SEALs on "hand-to-hand combat, edged-weapon fighting, Japanese martial arts, Israeli martial arts, Filipino martial arts..." Jane ticks them off on his now deadly fingers. "The training has been incredibly intensive." Is he devoted to his craft? Or just compensating for having a girl's name?