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6) August 1, 2008 (approx.): IMDB.com's PWZ running time was updated to a running time of 87 minutes, fueling fan fears that "Lexi's film was being butchered by Gale Anne Hurd". In addition, Lionsgate's "Midnight Meat Train", a hardcore bloody violent horror film based on a story by Clive Barker, premiered in about 100 dollar theaters instead of wide release as had been hoped for by horror fans, a decision apparently made by new LGF COO Joe Drake. Rumors swirled that Drake was "dumping" the films made by his predecessor out of spite; Punisher fans feared this fate might befall PWZ too. Also, somewhere along the way IMDB was updated to show that Charlie Clouser had succeeded Lexi's preferred composer Christopher Franke, then the composer was removed altogether. UpcomingFilmScores (Upcoming Film Scores article link) then reported that the new composer was Michael Wandmacher. When his source was questioned, the author wrote: "It was confirmed by his agency, Evolution Music Partners. Contrary to all the rumors going around on the net, which are ALL false, no other composer has been attached to this project save for Lexi's original composer, Chris Franke. And the score is an orchestral/electronic hybrid. There's no "heavy metal" in it." 

7) August 4, 2008: PWZ producer Gale Anne Hurd was alerted to some scathing posts about her on IMDB's PWZ message boards and was confused by the hostility. In a private email she said: PWZ will NOT have a hard rock score but an orchestral score as the film deserves, and Lionsgate had NOT posted the 87-minute running time to IMDB because that wasn't true. She even wondered if a rival studio were trying to give PWZ bad publicity by providing IMDB the bogus run time. 

8) August 14, 2008: Latino Review's George Roush (Latino Review article link) claimed a source "deep within the bowels of Hollywood and close to the Punisher: War Zone project" contacted him to say: "the big fight over the Punisher project is Lionsgate wants a PG-13 cut to be released", presumably with hopes of emulating the success of the PG-13 "The Dark Knight". FilmSchoolRejects' Robert Fure  (Film School Rejects article link) called bulls*** on Latino Review and tracked down their own source who is "close to the production" and whom he trusts completely, who said: PWZ will definitely be rated R. 

9) August 16, 2008: PWZ cinematographer Steve Gainer posted on Tim Bradstreet / Thomas Jane's Raw Studios message board (Raw Studios article link) that: Lexi is not off the film, is still "steering the boat", is still involved in the edit process, did in fact get married; he saw a cut of PWZ that day that ran 91 minutes (my note: that's only 4 minutes longer than the rumored 87 minutes from IMDB but still a standard length for a feature film); PWZ will be rated R and will be released in theaters on December 5, 2008. Based on Steve's post, AICN and Latino Review published clarifications.