Remy Danton
All Star
In the current age of superhero and comic book films routinely dominating the box office, it’s sometimes hard to remember a time when that wasn’t the case. Well, one needs only to look back at that long-ago decade known as the 1990s to see just how desolate a wasteland the live-action superhero landscape used to be. While 2000′s X-Men tends to get most of the credit for resurrecting the genre, one other comic book property could also rightfully lay claim to some of that glory: Blade.
Blade may not have been an incredibly massive hit, but it did very respectably, roughly doubling its budget at the box office and earning a large cult following that still stands today. Guillermo Del Toro’s Blade II did similarly well at the box office, and some fans hold it up as being even better than the original. Unfortunately, then came 2004′s Blade: Trinity. Largely regarded as a creative disaster, Blade: Trinity bombed at the box office, and (along with various other personal issues) helped tank star Wesley Snipes’ career.
That said, we’re now a decade out from Blade: Trinity’s failure, and with Snipes’ issues sorted out, it’s not too surprising that the actor wants to step back into the boots of his most iconic role to date. Of course, the question is, would fans welcome back a now 51-year-old Snipes into the Blade role? If the actor’s latest creative idea for the character comes true, fans will likely greet him with open arms.
Snipes offered the following proposal during a recent interview with EW.
‘Blade’ chasing the ‘Twilight’ kids around? Hey man, there’s always a possibility, and I’m open to it. There have been rumors around that we may explore the opportunity, so give me one more shot!
Ah, Twilight, the franchise that has quickly become shorthand for everything that’s wrong with vampires in today’s pop culture world. Not that constant critical ravaging ever stopped Twilight’s target audience from making each new film a blockbuster financial success. Still, Blade targeting the glittery, self-obsessed bloodsuckers from the Twilight series would serve as an epic catharsis for everyone who remembers when vampires were more about being badass monsters and less about creepily courting high school girls while being over 100-years-old.
As for the overall prospect of returning to the superhero movie game, Snipes expanded upon his feelings in a different interview with MTV.
I’d love to get back in the suit again and do some things I’ve learned how to do now that I didn’t know how to do then. I think we’re better at making that kind of a film now. Some of the things we did in the early parts of the franchise were experimental and now they’ve become customary in a lot of the ‘Avengers’ films and other comic book adaptations.
While Snipes’ observations about the evolution of comic book films seem to be on target, one thing he can’t forget is that the Blade franchise is no longer in the same hands as it was when he left. The rights to make Blade films have since reverted to Marvel/Disney, and it’s a bit hard to imagine movies as dark as Blade and Blade II being made under the current regime. One wonders whether Blade would even fit in with the brightly-colored Marvel Cinematic Universe of 2014.
What do you guys think? Should Marvel make more Blade films? If so, should Wesley Snipes return to the role, or is there a better option available?
No official announcements have been made regarding further Blade films.
Source: http://screenrant.com/blade-4-wesley-snipes-interview/
