Back in July, it was announced at the San Diego Comic-Con that Jen and Sylvia Soska (better known as Twisted Twins) were creating a new cinematic take on Jimmy Palmiotti’s subversive comic book ass-kicker Painkiller Jane, and now they’ve affirmed to CraveOnline their commitment to a tough-as-nails, hard R-rated version of the gun-toting heroine.
“I’m not working for Marvel,” Jen Soska said. “It has to be an R-rated character. When you come to a character like Jane, she drinks, she fights, she f*cks, she talks like you and I talk, and that’s an important part of her character. That’s why we’d be really disappointed if that ended up being a PG or a PG-13 film because if you look at the character Kids are reading this kind of content. I mean, when I was a kid I was reading ‘The Punisher.’ So Jane has to be true to the character and it’s got to be an R. We can’t tone it down or we’d tone Jane out of the entire script.”
When they were initially announced as directors, the Sisters teased “a scene where Jane’s not wearing anything but bullets flying all around her,” so that alone should give you an idea of what’s in store for Jane, who’s been adapted both as a Made-for-TV movie and a TV series for Syfy, neither of which were received well.
“And this is the third shot, they kept watering her down, watering her down, watering her down,” Sylvia Soska told Crave. “Jen and I are not going to let that happen, and Jimmy Palmiotti – who is also one of the producers – he’s not going to let that happen. There are some scenes in this movie, there’s no way theyre not going to slap us with an R. Once you see it, it’s going to just be batsh*t crazy.”
Sylvia adds that she considers their “bi-sexual, badass, dirty language, doesn’t give a f*ck cop” to be the first female-led superhero movie, citing bombs like Elektra and Catwoman as not being “real movies.” Them’s fighting words, so let’s hope the twins can nab an awesome actress to fill Jane’s shoes.
Painkiller Jane will focus on Jane Vasko, an undercover police officer whose cover is blown during an undercover narc op and is drugged into a coma. She wakes up in a changed world, having somehow been infused with strange powers during her sleep, ready to exact vengeance.
Jen and Sylvia Soska most recently directed the WWE horror sequel See No Evil 2 and are currently in production on another WWE movie titled Vendetta. They made their names with the body modification thriller American Mary and have crafted a segment for the upcoming ABCs of Death 2.
