^ Not so much Blade as Blunt Instrument...
BLADE rights regained by Marvel, planning Film or TV Series
- Thread starter Dream
- Start date
He's slimmed down some, but still pretty jacked. Also, I think he's older than all the guys we've suggested in addition to Snipes.
Oh I know, how about up and comer Anthony Mackie from The Hurt Locker?
He actually kind of resembles MMA fighter Jon Jones.
Oh I know, how about up and comer Anthony Mackie from The Hurt Locker?
He actually kind of resembles MMA fighter Jon Jones.
Please no. I'm sick of Hollywood now trying to make Idris the lone black male star for the post Denzel-Will era. Spread the wealth and give work to others just as worthy if not more (like Chiwetel Ejiofor who would walk all over Elba in terms of acting).
Here's my problem with Blade Trinity. Fans of comic books and adventure/sci-fi/fantasy novels whine when there is a casting (or suggestion of casting) of a black person to play a character that is white. They like the casting to stay true to the original intent of the characters' creators. So Spiderman, Batman, James Bond, Tarzan, etc must all be played by white actors. I'm perfectly fine with that. But when Hollywood had its hands on a franchise played by a black actor portraying an established black character and that franchise is relatively successful, it allowed the writer of the third film to make the movie more about a pair of new white characters and far less about Blade, the title character. How was that justified during the script and pre-production processes? It would be like Nolan introducing some new black hero in the third Batman movie who takes away much of the spotlight from the Caped Crusader. Of course that would never happen with Bats, but it sure as hell happened in the third Blade film. And it happened most likely because the studio in particular (and Hollywood in general) would never object to making white characters more prominent.
I realize that Snipes was a bit of an ass on the set of the third film but it doesn't matter. He was the star, he played the title character. He had the proven track record with the box office of the first two Blade films (plus other movies in which Snipes starred). Crank out that third film with him and then recast later for the reboot if he’s giving you problems. However to instead hand over so much of the film to Ryan Reynolds at that time was an insult. White male newcomers, like Reynolds was back then, get opportunities all the time (check out Reynolds' slate of films over the last few years as evidence; check out the countless adaptations of comic books, graphic novels, books, TV shows, etc that are dominated by white characters). Black actors, on the other hand, have far more limited options even if they are stars (Denzel and Will get a more narrow option of roles to play compared to their white counterparts of similar status). Blade is the lone franchise film series that centers around a black person, and yet Blade was pushed to the side in his own film to make way for two pointless additional characters. You could get away adding the Jessica Biel character if she was to play the love interest of Blade (as she would have if the title character was white IMO), but obviously TPTB had no intention going there. And then of course when the movie doesn't do that well Hollywood sits back and goes "you see, films with a black leads are too risky unless Denzel or Will is the star".
And when it came time to make a Blade TV series what did TPTB do? They cast a rap star with no charisma, very little acting experience and no martial arts training and made him, in theory, the lead. But the storylines ended up revolving around more of the white co-stars. Blade didn't even have an active love life as the white characters and you tell me what TV series with a white male lead doesn't give its title character a love life?
The fact that Marvel was in a rush to reboot the Hulk despite its box office failures but is in no hurry to revisit Blade tells you all you need to know. It is the same double standard. As others have pointed out the vampire craze is at an all-time high and yet Marvel doesn't want to try to cash in on its lone character with a vampire affiliation. Coincidence ? I think not.
Michael K. Williams? Really? Would you ever suggest some scrawny, kinda ugly-looking white character actor to play the lead role in a superhero action flick? Probably not so why even go there with the Omar dude when coming up with selections for black actors? In case you haven't been keeping up with modern cinema, Hollywood only hands out these roles these days to pretty boys anyway. That's why Hugh Jackman ends up playing Wolverine whom last time I checked was short, terrible hairy and not that much of a looker in the comics. For Blade I'd rather Hollywood find a relative newcomer with the charisma to bring both men AND women to the theaters, rather than hire someone like Michael K. Williams to play the role (which is what they did when looking for the dude to play Thor). That's like suggesting a young Steve Buscemi to play Captain America. Whoever they hire (if they do new Blade films) at least don't get someone with the shaved head look. The comic books now have all the black male characters looking that way)
Edited to add that Michael J. White would have been a very good choice to play Blade...ten years ago.
Tyrese Gibson is a no-talent who only gets work because Michael Bay needs a token and John Singleton is in love with him.
Alright you got me. Although no one is going to accept Dracula as a Marvel character anyway.
Alright you got me. Although no one is going to accept Dracula as a Marvel character anyway.
True, he's bigger than that. But there's no reason you couldn't do a TOMB OF DRACULA movie that picked up characters and plotlines from the Marvel version. Heck, Blade started out as a supporting character in the old Marv Wolfman/Gene Colan comics.
As I recall, there actually was a Japanese anime version several years ago . . . .
The Blade anime just premiered this summer.
Kinda ugly? I wouldn't say so. Yes, he has that scar down his face, but he's still a striking looking man with great bone structure. Not to mention that he's charismatic as hell and a good actor to boot. He easily could bulk up to play an action role easily (ever see Will Smith before Bad Boys? You'd never have thought he could play Muhammed Ali). And would it be so unbelievable that his character might have a facial scar, given that he wields a sword and fights with vampires?!
Yes, pretty boys like Daniel Craig (James Bond), Liam Neeson (Taken, Unknown), Nicholas Cage (Ghost Rider), Ed Norton (Incredible Hulk), Robert Downey Jr (Iron Man) or Vin Diesel.
Fair enough, but I personally think he totally captured the attitude and spirit of Wolverine. Would you rather they'd gone with some of the dopier fanboy choices like Glenn Danzig?
Again, fair enough, but there's a reason why Omar was one of the most popular characters in The Wire. Various gangbanger viewers were able to idolise this gay character they'd otherwise hate because of Williams' charisma.
No, it's not. Cap is tall, blond, muscular, square-jawed and handsome and should look like he's in his twenties. Buscemi is small and - well, none of the rest. Williams would just need to work out to look like Blade. He's a bigger guy than Chiwetel Ejifor (by a whole inch, admittedly!). Blade looks kinda ageless and Williams looks much younger than his 46 years.
Agreed on both counts. Sticky Fingaz' shaved head looked all wrong on the tv version.
That's not really a fair assessment of the situation. As reported, Marvel has just gotten back control over film rights to their character. They could not have proceeded with another Blade film unless New Line(?) wanted to. And apparantly, New Line had no interest in exploiting the property. Now that Marvel is controlling their character's destinies with considerable success, I have no doubt that Blade will get a reboot as the Hulk did.
^ I'd be surprised if Marvel didn't relaunch the character who heralded the success of Marvel movies, a year before X-Men.
don't let the facts get in the way of a good rant.
I LOL'ed.
Well, there was a lot in Nkemp's "rant" that I agreed with, especially regarding how Blade was pushed to the side in Trinity and especially his marginalization in the TV show vis a vis Krista and Marcus. I think that marginalization was set up from get go with the selection of Kirk Jones, an enthusiastic, but undynamic actor. The idea that Goyer passed up on Michael Jai White (what I read, not sure if its true) but settled on Jones, tells me that he had very little intention of making Blade the center of the show, but merely wanted to use the brand as a selling point. In fact, the pilot established Krista as the heart of the show and it was mostly about her struggle. To be fair, Blade got some character bones thrown here and there, but it was mostly all about Krista.
I don't know what it is, but sometimes, I feel that for some white creators blacks are inscrutable as characters/people so if they are featured at all, they are side characters or not well developed. It's easier to fall back to stereotypes or make a black character badass, without emotion or feeling, or stunted emotional development, than to make a three dimensional character who is black. This is what I think happened with Blade and was a dividing line between Snipes and Goyer. Goyer won out in Trinity and especially on his TV show and you see what we got. A depowered, nearly irrevelant 'main character', and a former gangbanger to boot.
When the show was out, I remember debating with people all the time about Blade having a love interest. For some it was unthinkable. It would 'ruin' him. But being in love/having a relationship didn't ruin Nick Knight, Buffy, Angel, St. John (Moonlight), etc. It didn't stop them from kicking ass or doing their jobs. But for Blade it was too much to contemplate. Even Snipes had wanted a love scene, he understood the need to seed Blade with humanity, and Del Toro and Goyer didn't do it. This is one of the few areas where the old comics have trumped the movies. Reappraising the old Blade comics, he seemed more capable of sustaining relationships.
As for a new film, I diverge a little from Nkemp there. They are just getting the rights back and it might take a moment to get things going. I wasn't happy about Joey Q's response though. Blade might not be an 'icon' in the comics since, but he has had cinematic success so it makes little sense to put him on the backburner, especially if they are going forward with films on guys like Antman.
I don't know what it is, but sometimes, I feel that for some white creators blacks are inscrutable as characters/people so if they are featured at all, they are side characters or not well developed. It's easier to fall back to stereotypes or make a black character badass, without emotion or feeling, or stunted emotional development, than to make a three dimensional character who is black. This is what I think happened with Blade and was a dividing line between Snipes and Goyer. Goyer won out in Trinity and especially on his TV show and you see what we got. A depowered, nearly irrevelant 'main character', and a former gangbanger to boot.
When the show was out, I remember debating with people all the time about Blade having a love interest. For some it was unthinkable. It would 'ruin' him. But being in love/having a relationship didn't ruin Nick Knight, Buffy, Angel, St. John (Moonlight), etc. It didn't stop them from kicking ass or doing their jobs. But for Blade it was too much to contemplate. Even Snipes had wanted a love scene, he understood the need to seed Blade with humanity, and Del Toro and Goyer didn't do it. This is one of the few areas where the old comics have trumped the movies. Reappraising the old Blade comics, he seemed more capable of sustaining relationships.
As for a new film, I diverge a little from Nkemp there. They are just getting the rights back and it might take a moment to get things going. I wasn't happy about Joey Q's response though. Blade might not be an 'icon' in the comics since, but he has had cinematic success so it makes little sense to put him on the backburner, especially if they are going forward with films on guys like Antman.
I know you say it's just a feeling, but is there any commentary from Snipes or other cast and crew to back that up? It doesn't really seem fair to characterize Goyer as intentionally marginalizing his lead actor(s) because he suddenly didn't know how to write for a black character after the first two films where he apparently did fine. I doubt all the good characterization of the first two films can be laid solely at Wesley Snipe's doorstep, with Goyer getting none of the credit.
Wasn't Blade being part of a street gang straight out of the comics with the Bloodshadows?
It never had a chance to develop into a full-on relationship of course, but I thought Blade's affection for the vampire Neesa was handled pretty well in the second film.
Well there is the lawsuit Snipes filed against New Line. I don't know the particulars offhand, but he did feel he was being unfairly shunted aside. I think Kris Kristofferson also filed a lawsuit, but I'm sketchy on that.
I think the idea for Blade was a collaboration between Snipes and Goyer. Whereas I think Goyer might have wanted to go in one direction, Snipes would pull him back and vice versa. And I think Snipes had pushed for a love scene at least since the second film; in the commentary Del Toro even talks about cutting a scene that looked like Blade had recently woken up post-coitus. And Wesley wanted a love scene in the third film. I heard that he was supposed to have a love scene with Abigail originally.
As for the gang thing, there was the Bloodshadows in the comics, but the movies took very little from the comics to begin with, so I don't know how much of a precedent that is. The movies had elevated much of the material it did handle, so it didn't have to go there with gang affiliations. Which points out that the comics weren't free of stereotypes either. Though when I looked back at the comics I did feel that Blade often came across as a bit more three dimensional, capable of being in love, of having relationships, so not everything in the comics were bad.
Thankfully they didn't make Blade's mom a prostitute like in the comics. But back on the gang thing, did he have to be a gangbanger? It was stereotypical. How many times have we seen that type of portrayal of young black men? Goyer couldn't have done something different? Were there any other ways to conceive of young black men hanging out or being friends that didn't mean they were in a gang? It was a lazy, shortcut. Though it did present the TV version of Steppin' Razor, which I did enjoy. Rarely if ever was TV Blade's intelligence, his expertise on vamps highlighted. When he wasn't getting his ass kicked, or saved by Krista, or largely getting outmaneuvered by Marcus, he took a breath to drop the wisdom that Shen is the 'smart one'. So what did that make him?
And I think that's where the lack of Wesley's insight hurt Goyer's take on the character. The character largely lost his humanity, and I do credit Snipes with infusing Blade with humanity. That's not just Goyer's writing. In the hands of another actor, Goyer's movie Blade could've been just as much a block of wood.
Also Goyer's Blade, without Wesley, was more of a sidenote character. I've said all along that movie Blade was a combination of Goyer and Snipes, but without Snipes, it seemed like Goyer grew even more bored with the character than he did in Trinity, and decided to add some sexy white vamps to the mix.
