In the newest episode of our IGN30 Icons series, Blade 2 director Guillermo del Toro revealed why he believes Mahershala Ali’s Blade movie never got off the ground — and it’s not because of Kevin Feige.
First announced in 2019, Marvel Studios’ highly anticipated Blade reboot suffered numerous setbacks and was ultimately canceled. Despite training for years in multiple martial arts to the point where he literally blew out his knee, Mahershala Ali found himself so frustrated with the project that he completely washed his hands of the role and went on to use his newfound ass-kicking skills in Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.
Having directed Blade 2, we asked del Toro why he thought this project fell through — and, for him, it’s all about Wesley Snipes’ unmistakable star power.
“I'm telling you — and I mean it because I know it — 50% of the ‘Blade-ness’ of Blade is Wesley Snipes. He is not the most linear actor to deal with, right? But every time he stood in front of the lens, I said, ‘That’s a movie star,’” he answered.
“For example, I showed him a gun we designed — beautiful, [Dieter] Reinhardt, Ron Pearlman ends up using it, with a blade on the front — and he looked at it. ‘Not for Blade. Cold gun, but not for Blade.’ I said, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘Because Blade is the weapon.’ He said, ‘I don't want the toys. I want the man. The man is a dangerous guy. You give me too many toys, and that’s the Batmobile and the Bat belt. That's not Blade.’ And I went, ‘Ah, this guy knows it.’”
While del Toro went on to joke that Snipes is actually "100%" of Blade’s "Blade-ness," he said the other part of the equation comes out to “the filmmaker articulating,” and described how he studied Stephen Norrington's filmmaking style to bring his own unique flair to the IP for its second film.
“I had four or five moving boxes worth of dailies from [Stephen Norrington's] movie,” he said. “And I studied all those VHS tapes. I understood exactly how he shot it. He did some formations that were really extraordinarily weird. For example, he had a low camera with a longer lens in front of a high camera with a wide lens facing each other. …and then I started his formations and I said, ‘Okay, I'm going to go at it differently.’
“But there is one setup on Blade 2, which is 13 cameras working at the same time like a ballet. This camera is moving this way and then it crosses this one right on time for my cut. So I would cut before we shoot. So what they did is extraordinary. I know it.”
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.ign.com/articles/thats-a-movie-star-guillermo-del-toro-credits-wesley-snipes-for-100-of-blades-iconic-persona-after-marvel-studios-mahershala-ali-reboot-canceled
