David Goyer: "Magneto" on hold, "Blade" may return

[JacksonArcher]

Comic book aficionado and screenwriter/director David Goyer talked to SuperHeroHype! on the press junket for his film The Unborn starring Gary Oldman. He updated on the progress of the proposed Magneto spin-off film in which he is attached to direct and even updated on the Blade franchise.

Regarding Magneto:

"I think they like the script and they're just waiting to see what happens with Wolverine," Goyer told us. "I don't think they would consider moving forward until the movie comes out."

Magneto chronicles the early days of Erik Lensherr and his first encounters with Charles Xavier. I am assuming if X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a hit this coming May, expect Magneto to be greenlit and in theaters no later than summer 2010.

Goyer also spoke about the Blade franchise, which technically ended with the short-lived Blade: The Series on Spike TV.

What he said regarding the Blade character:

"I heard rumors that they may want to start from scratch with a new person playing Blade. It's funny because I thought about how I never wanted to do a vampire film ever again because I'm sick of it. But I was reading the Tomb of Dracula Omnibus and I hadn't read them in a long time and I thought it might be cool to do another vampire movie at some point."

It seems like Goyer is speculating on whether or not he'd even be in consideration for the creative position of any future Blade incarnation. However it would make sense that whoever owns the rights to Blade (I believe it was New Line before it disbanded) would want to continue the character, or reboot the character, now since Wesley Snipes is in legal trouble and now perhaps not so viable as an actor.

I think after three films and one short-lived television series, they've explored all that's left to be explored in the character, unless they went back to the comics and imagined him in the sort of Victorian image that he was birthed as.

Thoughts?

 

[Greg Cox]

unless they went back to the comics and imagined him in the sort of Victorian image that he was birthed as.

Huh? Blade was never a Victorian character in the comics. Do you mean Dracula?

 

[JacksonArcher]

unless they went back to the comics and imagined him in the sort of Victorian image that he was birthed as.

Huh? Blade was never a Victorian character in the comics. Do you mean Dracula?

Whichever classic time period Blade started out as. I'm not that educated in Blade lore, so pardon my ignorance.

 

[Mike Farley]

unless they went back to the comics and imagined him in the sort of Victorian image that he was birthed as.

Huh? Blade was never a Victorian character in the comics. Do you mean Dracula?

While Blade was originally a 70's era Shaftesque figure, his most recent series retconned him as being born and raised in Victorian England. It tried to merge the film and original comic verisons.

 

[Greg Cox]

No problem. As created by Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan in the seventies, Blade was your standard 1970's blaxploitation hero: a streetwise, jive-talking contemporary character. Which was why I blinked a bit at the idea of him as a Victorian character!

 

[Greg Cox]

unless they went back to the comics and imagined him in the sort of Victorian image that he was birthed as.

Huh? Blade was never a Victorian character in the comics. Do you mean Dracula?

While Blade was originally a 70's era Shaftesque figure, his most recent series retconned him as being born and raised in Victorian England. It tried to merge the film and original comic verisons.

Really? I was unaware of that.

How bizarre.

 

[JacksonArcher]

Thanks Mike. I thought I was losing my marbles there for a second!

 

[Captaindemotion]

The Magneto movie could be good but it could be another Hannibal Rising, if done wrong. The problem is, we sort of know his back story. Concentration camp survivor, teams up with Prof X, forms X-Men, differs from Xavier, goes villainous. End of. It sounds like a story for completists or something best told in a novel or one-shot prestige graphic novel than a tentpole movie for Marvel. And who would want to try to fill McKellen's shoes?

As for another Blade movie, I think they need to leave it a looooooooong time. I'm in the minority that quite liked Trinity, but the tv show was pretty crap. There may well be more Blade tales to tell, but I'm not sure Goyer is the man to tell them - the tv show suggested he's run out of ideas for that universe.

Also, the tv show reminded us just how good Snipes was in that role and how hard it was to replace him. Sticky Fingaz was like a little boy dressed up for Hall'oween by comparison.

I wouldn't be surprised if on the back of twillight they ret-conned Blade and made more of a teen friendly version with a young hot actor in the role, but I think that would lose the viewers who enjoyed watching Wesley disembowel vamps in the previous movies ...

 

[JacksonArcher]

I definitely think Magneto would be pretty useless. Villains are kept best a mystery. Look at Darth Vader, Boba Fett, Magneto, Hannibal Lecter, The Joker (as portrayed by Heath Ledger)...once you know the history behind the character, it removes the enigma and the mystery which makes them so alluring in the first place.

With his penchant and affinity for World War II-esque stories, Magneto would actually be a very good film for Bryan Singer to direct. I just can't see David Goyer doing this justice. Like Captaindemotion said, I see this as another Hannibal Rising at its best, honestly. Which isn't a good comparison. At all.

As for Blade ... I also agree that the character should just sort of lie down for a while. I got disenfranchised with the series since Blade: Trinity, which I thought was one of the most horribly written & directed comic-book films ever, on par with Elektra or Catwoman. I'd rate it just a notch higher than those films because despite its atrociousness it does happen to be entertaining (at times), a bit humorous thanks to Ryan Reynolds, and it has some pretty cool action sequences. Dominic Purcell was just an awful Dracula, but admittedly the character was written so horribly not even an actor on par with Gary Oldman could salvage that character.

I never really saw Blade: The Series besides the pilot episode. I watched it until I heard the new actor as Blade speak, and then I turned it off.

I was always smitten with Goyer's original idea for Blade III, which would have been set in a dystopic, post-apocalyptic world where vampires had finally taken over and Blade had been exiled, now living underground. It had this Blade Runner vibe that I loved, and I think the only reason why New Line rejected it because it probably would have been really expensive, and the Blade films have never been $200 million hits.

Anyway, I wouldn't mind seeing that set-up for a future Blade film, but it would only work with Wesley Snipes in the role.

 

[Johnny Rico]

As for Blade ... I also agree that the character should just sort of lie down for a while. I got disenfranchised with the series since Blade: Trinity, which I thought was one of the most horribly written & directed comic-book films ever, on par with Elektra or Catwoman. I'd rate it just a notch higher than those films because despite its atrociousness it does happen to be entertaining (at times), a bit humorous thanks to Ryan Reynolds, and it has some pretty cool action sequences. Dominic Purcell was just an awful Dracula, but admittedly the character was written so horribly not even an actor on par with Gary Oldman could salvage that character.

I never really saw Blade: The Series besides the pilot episode. I watched it until I heard the new actor as Blade speak, and then I turned it off.

I was always smitten with Goyer's original idea for Blade III, which would have been set in a dystopic, post-apocalyptic world where vampires had finally taken over and Blade had been exiled, now living underground. It had this Blade Runner vibe that I loved, and I think the only reason why New Line rejected it because it probably would have been really expensive, and the Blade films have never been $200 million hits.

Anyway, I wouldn't mind seeing that set-up for a future Blade film, but it would only work with Wesley Snipes in the role.

With Blade I think they need to do a Morbius sotry if nothing else. I mean the Goyer films were fine, by establishing a more realistic world/universe outside of the comics, but I think if they went back to the comic roots of the character, which of the only one I know of is the Morbius villian, they may just have the justification to do so.

Actually if they really wanted to, and since MARVEL has opened their own studio, and it seems that MARVEL is trying to create a single universe for all of its characters as they did this past summer with Iron Man and Hulk, they could do Blade the same way. Bring him into the same universe and maybe even team him up with Ghostrider to fight the vampire-like characters from that film. 'Cause it seemed that Blade and Ghostrider did have some crossovcer stories in the comics.

 

[Captaindemotion]

I was always smitten with Goyer's original idea for Blade III, which would have been set in a dystopic, post-apocalyptic world where vampires had finally taken over and Blade had been exiled, now living underground. It had this Blade Runner vibe that I loved, and I think the only reason why New Line rejected it because it probably would have been really expensive, and the Blade films have never been $200 million hits.

Anyway, I wouldn't mind seeing that set-up for a future Blade film, but it would only work with Wesley Snipes in the role.

I agree with you on both counts, re the concept and re the need for Snipes to return to the role. The problem is, I think it would now look too much like I Am Legend and would result in inevitable comparisons. Of course, Goyer has had that idea kicking around for some time - but then again, Matheson wrote the original Legend novel over 40 years ago, so the comparisons probably wouldn't be entirely unfair!

 

[TheBrew]

I definitely think Magneto would be pretty useless. Villains are kept best a mystery. Look at Darth Vader, Boba Fett, Magneto, Hannibal Lecter, The Joker (as portrayed by Heath Ledger)...once you know the history behind the character, it removes the enigma and the mystery which makes them so alluring in the first place.

I agree to a point, but Magneto was never a mystery. It could be another Hannibal Rising, but it could also be another Dark Knight. Magneto and Xavier's history has some really strong themes in it that could be explored well. Themes of struggle, friendship, and fighting against bigotry. Almost like an allegory for Malcom X v. MLK. And that could work incredibly well. You don't even need major special effects or set pieces. Just effective drama.

 

[Orintho]

Perhaps the commercial success of 'Twilight' renewed interest in a 'Blade' film? Although, it would be hard to see anyone but Wesley in the role.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Magneto movie I could do without...but another Blade might be interesting if they could find a story. I still want would love to see Goyer's original plans for Blade 3 when the vamps taking over and taking place in the future.

 

[CaptainCanada]

Blade was always British in the comics, but the movies have really diminished that; Paul Cornell in Captain Britain and MI:13 is out to reestablish it in the comics.

As for Magneto, I think there's fantastic potential there.

 

[Barbados Slim]

I think the franchise should be done. I loved it all, except for Trinity which really sucked. The TV series took a couple episodes to get going but it was really good by the end. But the fact that it got cancelled after one season on Spike of all channels is proof that there's really not a market for Blade. All things must end.

 

[DarKush]

I think the Magneto idea is a waste of time. His origin was well handled at the beginning of the X-Men film. Do we really need to go into detail with a film about how he became evil?

As for Blade, I would rather someone besides Goyer had a shot at it. I think Goyer did a great job with the first two Blade films, and the series was okay. But to some extent, Blade Trinity and the series showed me that Goyer's idea of Blade as a character is too limiting. Both Trinity and the series were pretty much Goyer's babies, with little or no input from Wesley Snipes and I think Goyer's idea of the character puts him on the backburner far too much. In Trinity, Abigail and Hannibal got too much screentime, and the TV show could've easily been called Krista the Series.

I think there is a lot of life left in Blade, but I think they need new creative hands on the character, someone willing or able to actually focus on Blade as a character-not just a killing machine. I think Wesley was able to bring some humanity to Blade, and made him more than just a jive-talking stereotype (to some extent the 70's version), or gangsta stereotype (to some extent, Blade the Series version).

I would definitely like them to keep Goyer's movies/series look for a reboot, the vampire houses, the explanation for vampirism, Blade's origin. But other than that, experiment a little.

Side question: So in the recent Guggenheim Blade series, that was supposed to be the Victorian era? I thought it was the 20s.

 

[Mike Farley]

I think Blade was born at the tail end of the Victorian era in London, but by the time he was a young man it was the 1920's.

 

[ancient]

I definitely think Magneto would be pretty useless. Villains are kept best a mystery. Look at Darth Vader, Boba Fett, Magneto, Hannibal Lecter, The Joker (as portrayed by Heath Ledger)...once you know the history behind the character, it removes the enigma and the mystery which makes them so alluring in the first place.

You're forgetting the biggest tease in the universe, Dr. Claw.

 

[Aragorn]

Friends of X-Men Origins: Blade.