Tag: Blade

'Blade': Jeymes Samuel Debunks Online Rumor He Was In Talks To Direct Marvel Reboot
Posted on in Film News, News

‘Blade’: Jeymes Samuel Debunks Online Rumor He Is In Talks To Direct Marvel Reboot

While Marvel Studios is gearing up to shoot things like “Spider-Man 4” with Destin Daniel Cretton (“Shang-Chi & The Legend of The Ten Rings”) directing and the Russo Brothers (“Avengers: Endgame”) making their triumphant return to the MCU for “Avengers: Doomsday,” another big tentpole project is still seeking a director. That project would be their “Blade” reboot after losing two previous helmers (Bassam Tariq and Yann Damage). One rumor can be put to bed after British filmmaker Jeymes Samuel (“The Book of Clarence,” “The Harder They Fall”) squashed the rumbling he was in talks with Marvel Studios for the gig starring Mahershala Ali (“Moonlight,” “Jurassic World Rebirth”) as the new Eric Brooks.

Stating, “I don’t know where these rumors start, but I am not in talks to do ‘Blade’ with Marvel.”

You can read his full rebuttal on that rumor he posted on Twitter yesterday below.

That aforementioned rumor originated from World of Reel, which has a spotty track record (putting it lightly) for reporting tidbits like these and was later disputed by Jeff Sneider on his YouTube podcast. So it wasn’t all that surprising that this turned out to be inaccurate.

Buyers, beware when it comes to rumors that might sound too good to be true as there are plenty of places, even from those who have strong reputations that haven’t been terribly accurate lately. An abundance of caution should be applied to mainly any non-trade reports or rumors from the jump anyway. Caution is certainly a sentiment shared by “Doctor Strange” director Scott Derrickson, who posted this evergreen message on social media today, warning folks how often rumors concerning Marvel projects tend to be bunk.

“In my years working for Marvel and in all the years since, I would say about 95% of what gets reported as Marvel news is false,” Derrickson posted on Twitter today.

Anyways, there do still seem to be plans to move forward with “Blade” despite the dust-up and extended delays to the horror/action film, which Kevin Feige reaffirmed is aiming to be another R-rated project after the huge success of the studios’ first R-rated release, “Deadpool & Wolverine,” destroyed box office records even with an adult-skewing audience. Funny enough, that film featured the return of Wesley Snipes as the Daywalker, which likely will help Marvel a lot by reminding the general public about the vampire-hunting character ahead of the new film.

I’m sure we’ll be hearing the real name of the director for “Blade,” hopefully soon, to end this online speculation and rumor mill.

SOURCE: JEYMES SAMUEL VIA TWITTER

'Deadpool & Wolverine' Global Opening Projected To Earn A Massive $438M+
Posted on in Film News, News

‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Global Opening Projected To Earn A Massive $438M+

“Deadpool & Wolverine” marks Marvel Studios‘ first big entry into live-action mutants ahead of their reboot of the “X-Men” franchise that is currently in development. The Multiverse-focused movie has over-delivered at the box office and is on the path to surpassing the first two movies within weeks. Deadline is now projecting that the R-rated superhero event pic should earn $205 million domestically and $438.3 million at the worldwide box office.

The success of “Deadpool & Wolverine” is obviously going to give the studio confidence that people will show up to more R-rated projects if they offer them. Marvel’s Kevin Feige has already confirmed their “Blade” reboot, starring two-time Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali, is aiming to be another R-rated MCU entry with the mature angle being “inherent to the character.”

This certainly should give Marvel Studios an extra incentive to proceed with things like “Deadpool 4,” “X-Force,” and potentially the Canadian-based mutant team Alpha Flight. Some other characters that might deserve the R-rated movie treatment include Punisher (Actor Jon Bernthal already reprises Frank Castle in “Daredevil: Born Again”), Deathlok, Psylocke, and the new Wolverine with his solo adventures in Madripoor (established via “The Falcon & The Winter Soldier”) or his Weapon X Program origin.

While the Multiverse angle of “Deadpool & Wolverine” (No spoilers) seemed to point toward Wade’s appearance in “Avengers: Secret Wars,” what’s next for the Merc With A Mouth and the TVA isn’t entirely clear.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

BLADE REBOOT CONFIRMED BY MARVEL AS R-RATED
Posted on in Film News, News

‘Blade’: Marvel’s Kevin Feige Says R-Rating “Inherent, Like Deadpool, To The Character” Confirming Mature Tone For MCU Reboot

Kevin Feige, the co-president of Marvel Studios and chief creative officer, is doing press rounds for “Deadpool & Wolverine.” It’ll be the first R-rated superhero attempt from Marvel Studios on their own (they helped out by advising on Lionsgate’s “Punisher: War Zone”) and many of us had assumed that more would be on the horizon, including something like their gestating “Blade” reboot that has Mahershala Ali attached to play the new Eric Brooks.

Well, while speaking with BlackTree TV (See that interview below), Feige seemingly has confirmed that “Blade” is going to be echoing the previous trilogy of movies by taking a mature angle toward the vampire hunter when asked about an R-rating for their reboot.

“I think that’s right; I mean, for the last few years, we’ve been trying to crack that movie, and the most important thing, for us, is not rushing it and making the right ‘Blade’ movie. Because there were some great ‘Blade’ movies years ago they were all rated R. So, I think that’s inherent, like Deadpool, to the character of Blade.

You might remember that before director Yann Demange (“White Boy Rick”) exited the reboot, he said they planned to make the new film with an R-rating in mind. Feige’s new comments would seemingly support his November statement.

“They gave me the R, which is so important,” Demange said.

Of course, “Blade” has been having some issues as Feige does mention they’re not “rushing” as they’re trying to “crack” the reboot of a successful franchise. The project was first announced back in 2019 with Ali starring without any sort of plan in place, which has been partly the reason for all the delays and hiccups; it’s one of the few feature films at Marvel Studios that started with an actor before they were ready to go ahead.

Since then, we’ve seen Demange replace first director Bassam Tariq and exit with an overload of various drafts, polishes, and rewrites to the script. “Black Widow” screenwriter Eric Pearson is reportedly handling the latest version of the action-horror project.

As far as we know, both actors Mia Goth (“MaXXXine,” “Pearl”) and Delroy Lindo (“Da 5 Bloods”) are still involved with the movie. Also, a more recent trade report revealed Goth is playing the main villain of the film, Lilith (The vampire incarnation of the character, not the Mother of Demons from “Midnight Sons”) who is canonically in the comic books is the daughter of Dracula.

I’m sure we’ll get more updates about “Blade” at San Deigo Comic-Con (fingers crossed for a new director announcement), so stay tuned for those.

SOURCE: BLACK TREE TV

Posted on in Film News, News

‘Deadpool 3’ Moves To July 26 While Marvel Bumps Other 2024 Tentpoles ‘Captain America 4’ & ‘Thunderbolts’ To 2025

Yesterday, it was announced by Marvel/Disney that they would be shifting around their release dates for upcoming films. The main tidbits from these updates see “Deadpool 3” (only completed 50% of filming and resuming later this month) moving to July 26 taking a spot originally meant for “Captain America: Brave New World” (wrapped before the strike). Both “Captain America 4” and “Thunderbolts” would be moving out of 2024 entirely with new dates in 2025. This would make “Deadpool 3” the only feature film coming in 2024 and would overload audiences in 2025 with four releases.

These are the new dates for the upcoming slate of Marvel Studios feature film releases:

DEADPOOL 3 – July 26, 2024

CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD – February 14, 2025

FANTASTIC FOUR – May 2, 2025

THUNDERBOLTS – July 25, 2025

BLADE – November 7, 2025

AVENGERS: THE KANG DYNASTY – May 1, 2026

AVENGERS: SECRET WARS – May 7, 2027

ARMOR WARS – TBA

SHANG-CH 2 – TBA

X-MEN REBOOT – TBA

“Thunderbolts,” “Fantastic Four,” and “Blade” have yet to start filming and we should be expecting some big casting news coming soon as the actors’ strike is resolved (pending membership ratification) and the casting process can now resume.

However, even with that July date for “Deadpool 3” now officially etched-in they have two fallback dates just in case the film needs more time to be completed given that normally films of this scale tend to take longer to be completed. Those include the film’s original date of September 6, 2024, and the former “Thunderbolts” date of December 20, 2024. The hope here is that Marvel Studios and director Shawn Levy won’t be rushing things as the film has only finished 50% of production (also would likely need reshoots/pickups after a round of editing).

This won’t be the last time Marvel shifts around these upcoming dates and we should be prepared for more shuffles in the future.

SOURCE: DISNEY/MARVEL

Posted on in Film News, News

‘Blade’ Director Yann Demange Confirms R-Rating For The MCU Reboot

There had been a huge debate about Marvel Studios and their upcoming “Blade” starring Mahershala Ali. That being if they’d aim for an R-rated film like the previous trilogy of movies (Led by Wesley Snipes) or tarnishing that mature branding going back to 1998 to court a younger audience with a PG-13 rating. However, it looks like we finally have an official answer to that question. While speaking with Deadline, the film’s current director Yan Demange (“White Boy Rick”) has confirmed that the studio has given him the greenlight to make an R-rated incarnation and would make this the second film made for adult audiences alongside “Deadpool 3.”

“They gave me the R, which is so important,” Demange said of the film’s rating.

“I come out of this wanting to be more open, more vulnerable and bring a more personal aspect to my work,” the director said. “But for Blade, we are going to have fun because Mahershala is such a deep actor. I’m excited to show a kind of ruthlessness, a roughness he has, that allows him to walk the earth in a particular way. I love him for that. He’s got a dignity and integrity, but there is a ferocity there that he usually keeps under the surface. I want to unleash that and put it on the screen.”

Eric Brooks, aka, Blade is a half-human/half-vampire hybrid who was born with vampire attributes but without deadly sensitivity to sunlight and silver, things that kill vampires that feed on the human population like cattle. One of the key aspects of the franchise has been its roots within exploitation and martial films including how our heroic vampire hunter dispenses vampires with silver bullets, swords, and other weapons. Blade is hardly a Marvel Comics character that children are aware of or looking forward to its reboot, so a PG-13 rating never made a lot of sense. Even more so when vampires are involved and you want to push into that horror angle, removing the gore would make these vampires less threatening given their whole thing is drinking blood and killing their victims in that manner.

“Blade” is currently undergoing rewrites by veteran screenwriter Michael Green (“Blade Runner 2049,” “Logan”) and we’ll likely know more about the film’s production once the SAG-AFTRA strike is resolved. While the volume of screenwriters might look troublesome to outsiders, it’s very much a normal thing for movies of this scale to get things right before filming combined with the assumption that Ali has some sort of creative input on “Blade.” Getting things right isn’t always a bad thing and after Marvel Studios became known for trying to fix scripts during production or with editing/reshoots, polishing the script in the prep phase could be seen as a way to save money in the long run.

The rest of the cast includes Delroy Lindo, Mia Goth, and Aaron Pierre with an assumption that more names will be revealed once the strike is resolved and the casting process can resume.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in News, Television News, Trailers

‘Rick & Morty’ Season 7 Trailer: Teases New Main Voice Actors & ‘Blade’ Parody Episode

Next month will see the return of one of the most popular animated satire series. Adult Swim has released a first-look trailer for the seventh season of “Rick & Morty” as they hope to move from co-creator Justin Roiland voicing the titular characters. This gives fans a chance to first hear the new voice-over actors as they’ve decided to pursue unnamed “soundalikes” rather than a celeb stunt casting like how Hulu picked British actor Dan Stevens (“Legion”) to replace Roiland in “Solar Opposites.”

Also, a noticeable element seen in the footage is that they’re circling back to previous teases of the duo becoming vampire hunters in some sort of parody episode of the 1998 film “Blade.” The film had been linked to a sword with built-in A.I. that had studied “Blade” to beat anyone in combat and another episode had teased them looking like badasses killing vampires in an alternate reality.

We’ve seen the show take on superheroes multiple times with their lampooning of “The Avengers” with “The Vindicators” along with a Captain Planet-type character, Planetina, who ended up having a tension-filled romantic relationship with Morty. It’ll be interesting to see if the “Blade” stuff is a full episode or simply a visual nod. Not to mention various writers from the show have made the jump to Marvel Studios working on high-profile MCU projects such as “Loki,” “She-Hulk,” “Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania,” “Doctor Strange In The Multiverse of Madness,” “Avengers: The Kang Dynasty,” and “Avengers: Secret Wars.”

Here is the official logline for the upcoming seventh season:

“’Rick & Morty’ are back and sounding more like themselves than ever! It’s season seven, and the possibilities are endless: what’s up with Jerry? EVIL Summer?! And will they ever go back to the high school?! Maybe not! But let’s find out! There’s probably less piss than last season. Rick and Morty, 100 years! Or at least until season 10!”

Folks involved with writing/producing the show have previously indicated that on the creative side, they won’t see much impact with the co-creator’s exit suggesting Roiland really hadn’t been contributing that much to recent seasons. This shouldn’t be that shocking given the growing group of writers working on the show (many leaving for Marvel Studios) has been the main creative force since Adult Swim made a deal to bankroll episodes until Season 10.

“Rick & Morty” will officially return to the airwaves as it premieres October 15 on Adult Swim and you can watch the aforementioned new trailer below.

SOURCE: ADULT SWIM

Posted on in Film News, News

‘Thunderbolts’ Is Latest MCU Film Paused Due To WGA Strike, ‘Deadpool 3’ Next?

The Writers Guild of America strike is still ongoing as a deal still hasn’t been made between writers and studios. This has led to a handful of high-profile projects pausing until the strike has been resolved. One of those recent projects was Marvel’s big “Blade” reboot starring Mahershala Ali and just last night more MCU delays were announced.

Deadline revealed that both “Thunderbolts” and the Disney+ series “Wonder Man” have been paused alongside “Blade.” This is happening as writers from “Agatha: Coven of Chaos” and “Vision Quest” have been spotted on the picket line, which suggests those projects are currently without their writing staff.

“Captain America: New World Order” has been shooting in Atlanta but doesn’t look like principal photography is going to be halted for now (that could change). Although, any reshoots or pickups are said to be only taking place until after the strike is over, which makes perfect sense as those scenes tend to be rewritten or altered during the editing process.

“Deadpool 3” remains a big question mark but all signs are pointing that film is heading towards a production pause during the strike as well. There are also some rumblings from those working on the film that despite what fan sites and Twitter accounts have been claiming over the past week, “Deadpool 3” might not actually have started production and is said to begin filming sometime in June. As of this posting Shawn Levy, Ryan Reynolds nor Hugh Jackman have made any official announcement that filming is underway on social media accounts, which is odd as you might expect them to that given how active they are and had used social media to announce Jackman’s big return as Wolverine for the sequel. However, costume and camera tests are mostly likely what are happening at this stage ahead since cast members are only now arriving in England. It could help explain why Jackman was recently spotted in a production van with a trimmed beard but never mentioned the film.

Regardless if filming has started or not, next month is going to make shooting “Deadpool 3” even messier as the DGA deal comes to an end on June 30 and someone like guild member, Shawn Levy, isn’t expected to cross the picket line. So, it does feel like it’s only a matter of time before Marvel makes a similar announcement as they did for their other big summer productions like “Blade” and “Thunderbolts.” Given that we don’t see Marvel completing production in a month it’s not hard to imagine that “Deadpool 3” getting delayed too.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in News

Marvel’s New ‘Blade’ Movie Adds Veteran Actor Delroy Lindo

Marvel Studios has been getting a string of character rights returned to the company. The rights deal expired as seen with Daredevil/Blade/Ghost Rider or in the case of X-Men/Fantastic Four, they had been absorbed into the Disney umbrella when they acquired 21st Century Fox.

In 2019, it was announced at San Diego Comic-Con that Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali would be replacing Wesley Snipes as the action-horror superhero Blade in a reboot film. It was later revealed by Marvel’s Kevin Feige that Ali had directly asked about playing Blade, despite them not having current plans for the character outside of ideas of doing a series at the now-disbanded Marvel Television.

Last week, it was revealed by The Hollywood Reporter that veteran character Delroy Lindo (Da 5 Bloods, The Harder They Fall) has taken a mystery role in the film from director Bassam Tariq (Mogul Mowgli).

Days before the report, I mentioned on Twitter about Lindo joining the reboot.

Filming is said to begin the late summer but has yet to get an official release date and Marvel hasn’t confirmed if they’ll be pursuing an R-rating or not.

BLADE – A half-mortal, half-immortal is out to avenge his mother’s death and rid the world of vampires. The modern-day technologically advanced vampires he is going after are in search of his special blood type needed to summon an evil god who plays a key role in their plan to execute the human race.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in News

SPOILERS: Chloe Zhao Confirms Secret Cameo In ‘Eternals’

*SPOILERS AHEAD FOR ETERNALS YOU’VE BEEN WARNED*

This weekend finally sees Chloe Zhao’s MCU debut with Eternals after multiple delays due to the pandemic and brings the Jack Kirby characters to the big screen alongside Kit Harington’s Dane Whitman, aka, The Black Knight Knight.

Without getting too deep into the other big post-credit scene, a second one features Whitman and another unseen character that is only heard. Director Chloe Zhao has now confirmed to Fandom that this character is indeed Mahershala Ali’s Blade, who will lead his very own solo film directed by Bassam Tariq (Mogul Mowgli).

Dane Whitman (Kit Harington) is by himself, staring at a case with his family crest on it. Dane has to psych himself up, saying “You can do this, you can do this,” before he opens the case and reveals a sword inside, as an eerie sound briefly erupts from within the case. Dane translates words inscribed on the inside of the case, reading “Death is my reward.” He looks down at the sword, which has some sort of strange, liquid-like movement rippling across it. As he prepares to touch the sword, Dane declares, “I’m sorry, I have to try,” only to be interrupted by the voice of a man, who we don’t see, but who says to Dane, from off-camera, “Sure you’re ready for that, Mr. Whitman?”

“That was the voice of one of my favorite superheroes, Mr. Blade himself. Blade, Blade, Blade, yeah,” Zhao tells Fandom confirming Blade’s cameo in the post-credit scene.

This isn’t a huge revelation as Mahershala Ali’s Blade was announced all the way back at San Diego Comic-Con 2019 and the reboot movie is said to begin production next year, potentially for a release date in 2023/2024.

However, Eric Brooks’ interest in the Ebony Blade or preventing Dane from using it is unclear, but it’ll be interesting to see if Blade/Brooks will be showing up in other projects before his solo film. Then again, Brooks has been known to get involved with all sorts of occult heroes and Black Knight would technically be part of that group given the supernatural death curse attached to the Ebony Blade.

Could Blade be recruiting Whitman for The Midnight Sons?

SOURCE: FANDOM

Posted on in Film News, News

Marvel Studios Movie Lineup In 2022-2023 Get Adjusted Release Dates

Today, Disney has announced a wave of new adjustments to their upcoming film slates for Marvel Studios movies in 2022 and 2023. Two dates previously set for untitled Marvel projects on July 28 and October 6 have been removed from the schedule.

Below is what the new lineup looks like.

  • DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS – MAY 6, 2022 
  • THOR: LOVE & THUNDER – JULY 8, 2022
  • BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER – NOVEMBER 11, 2022 
  • THE MARVELS – FEBRUARY 17, 2023
  • GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL.3 – MAY 5, 2023
  • ANT-MAN & THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA – JULY 28, 2023
  • UNTITLED MARVEL STUDIOS MOVIE – NOVEMBER 10, 2023

There is a good shot that Bassam Tariq’s Blade reboot is taking that November spot in 2023 given that project seems further along than either Deadpool 3 (a director has yet to be announced) or Jon Watts’ Fantastic Four (reportedly doesn’t have a script).

SOURCE: DISNEY