Brian Garfield, whose 1972 novel Death Wish portrayed Paul Kersey's transformation into a morally damaged and increasingly sick man, was furious at the direction taken by the movies. In Garfield's view, the 1974 adaptation had already converted Kersey into a kind of heroic avenger; Death Wish II pushed that transformation even further by presenting him as a focused predator hunting the men responsible for his daughter's death. Cannon briefly hired Garfield in 1980 to adapt his own sequel, Death Sentence, but Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus preferred an original screenplay by David Engelbach, Golan, and Hal Landers. They ultimately purchased the novel characters from Garfield rather than use his story. Garfield later remarked that the filmmakers had 'made a hero out of him' and pursued a separate adaptation without Kersey, which eventually became James Wan's 2007 film Death Sentence. The dispute was not merely a matter of sequel continuity: it was a fight over whether the character was a tragic warning about vigilantism or a marketable revenge icon.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1980s
Brian Garfield Revolted When Paul Kersey Was Turned into a Vengeance Hero
Brian Garfield and Death Wish II / 1980s
Brian Garfield, whose 1972 novel Death Wish portrayed Paul Kersey's transformation into a morally damaged and increasingly sick man, was furious at the direction taken by the movies. In Garfield's view, the 1974 adaptation had already converted Kersey into a kind of heroic avenger; Death Wish II pushed that transformation even further by presenting him as a focused predator hunting the men responsible for his daughter's death. Cannon briefly hired Garfield in 1980 to adapt his own sequel, Death Sentence, but Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus preferred an original screenplay by David Engelbach, Golan, and Hal Landers. They ultimately purchased the novel characters from Garfield rather than use his story. Garfield later remarked that the filmmakers had 'made a hero out of him' and pursued a separate adaptation without Kersey, which eventually became James Wan's 2007 film Death Sentence. The dispute was not merely a matter of sequel continuity: it was a fight over whether the character was a tragic warning about vigilantism or a marketable revenge icon.
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