http://chud.com/nextraimages/DominicWest.jpgI saw 300 before watching The Wire, so it took me a little while to clear the evil Dominic West out of my head and come to love him as McNulty, the fucked up Baltimore cop who is trying to make a difference. Come to love him I did, and now watching West be villainous in 300 is weird to me. So I imagine it’ll be equally weird to see West be the baddy in Punisher War Zone, where he’s been cast as Jigsaw, Punny’s archnemesis.

Also joining the cast is Wayne Knight, who has apparently lost some weight since his time as Newman (if the Seinfeld DVD extras are any indication). He’ll play Microchip, the Punisher’s nerdy sidekick.

Jigsaw? Microchip? This is looking more and more like Classic Punisher, and the casting makes me happy. West’s a good actor, and while he’ll be laboring under a pound of make-up, maybe the role will help him get recognized and do more work now that The Wire is drawing to an end. And I’ve always liked the dynamic between The Punisher and Microchip, not the least because the whole set-up is so weird and comic booky.