Twisted Twins Attack Painkiller Jane

Soska Sisters adapting cult comic

Twisted Twins Attack Painkiller Jane

by Owen Williams |
Published on

Previously pegged as horror directors thanks to the gnarly Dead Hooker In A Trunk and the freaky American Mary, "Twisted Twins" Jen and Sylvia Soska have recently shifted gears to action filmmaking with their Vendetta for WWE Studios. They're sticking with action for their next project, having signed on for **Painkiller Jane{ =nofollow}, adapted from the '90s Event Comics series by Jimmy Palmiotti and Joe Quesada.

Jane Vasko first appeared in print in 1995, and already has a tortuous continuity giving her multiple origin stories. In one, as an undercover cop, she believed she had gained the trust of Mafia boss Joey Fonti, but was duped into delivering a "message" to a rival mobster that turned out to be a bomb that took her with it. She was then mysteriously revived after the explosion with high pain tolerance and Wolverine-like regenerative abilities. Another version has her tortured and drugged rather than blown up, leading to the same results. Either way, she ends up a quick-healing vigilante bad-ass who's Hard To Kill.

She's been on screen before, in a 2005 TV movie (where the bad guys were Chechnyan rebels and her powers came from a biochemical weapon) and a 2007 SyFy series (where she discovers she's a mutant after being thrown from a building). In the film she was played by Emmanuelle Vaugier and renamed Jane Browning. In the 22-episode series she was called Vasko again and brought to life by Kristianna Loken.

The comics have also continued, most recently published by Dynamite. Crossovers have seen her teamed up with The Punisher, Hellboy, Vampirella and The Terminator.

There's no casting for the new version yet, but Painkiller Jane seems a perfect fit for the Soska Sisters' patented brand of female-centric extreme violence. Palmiotti himself is among the producers.

The twins'** Vendetta **recently finished shooting, and their See No Evil 2 (another WWE film) is already in the can, so they'll presumably be getting to Jane sooner rather than later.

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