News Analysis India

Tag: Blade

  • Marvel’s hires Yann Demange to direct ‘Blade’

    By PTI

    LOS ANGELES: Filmmaker Yann Demange has signed on with Marvel Studios to its much-anticipated “Blade” movie.

    Demange, known for critically-acclaimed features “’71” (2014) and “White Boy Rick” (2018), will helm the project from a script by Michael Starrbury, according to entertainment news website Deadline.

    He joins the project months after the exit of director Bassam Tariq.

    The filmmaker will still be attached as an executive producer on the movie.

    “Blade” centres on the iconic comic book vampire slayer.

    He is half-mortal, half-immortal, trying to free the world from vampires as a way of avenging his mother, who was killed by a vampire as she gave birth to him.

    The movie is set to star Oscar winner Mahershala Ali in the title role alongside actors Delroy Lindo and Aaron Pierre.

    Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige will produce the movie, which is expected to start production in Atlanta in 2023.

    LOS ANGELES: Filmmaker Yann Demange has signed on with Marvel Studios to its much-anticipated “Blade” movie.

    Demange, known for critically-acclaimed features “’71” (2014) and “White Boy Rick” (2018), will helm the project from a script by Michael Starrbury, according to entertainment news website Deadline.

    He joins the project months after the exit of director Bassam Tariq.

    The filmmaker will still be attached as an executive producer on the movie.

    “Blade” centres on the iconic comic book vampire slayer.

    He is half-mortal, half-immortal, trying to free the world from vampires as a way of avenging his mother, who was killed by a vampire as she gave birth to him.

    The movie is set to star Oscar winner Mahershala Ali in the title role alongside actors Delroy Lindo and Aaron Pierre.

    Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige will produce the movie, which is expected to start production in Atlanta in 2023.

  • Blade, starring Mahershala Ali, to start filming in summer 2022

    By Express News Service

    Mahershala Ali’s Blade was earlier speculated to release in October 2022. Recent reports, however, suggest that the film is only set to begin shooting in Summer 2022. The post-credit scenes of Eternals, which released in theatres on November 5, featured Kit Harrington’s character Dane Whitman admiring Ebony Blade. It was right after he had given himself a pep talk. A voice was heard posing the question, “Sure you’re ready for that, Mr Whitman?”

    This post-credit scene had confused many fans of the Marvel multiverse, but it also gave rise to the speculation that the film was scheduled for a release sooner rather than later. At this time, Marvel India released a tweet with a schedule of upcoming releases in the country. In addition to Eternals, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the list also featured Blade. The release date was revealed as October 7, 2022.

    With the shooting schedule pushed to Summer 2022, this doesn’t hold true any longer and hence, fans will have to wait a tad bit longer for the film to grace the silver screen. Meanwhile, Da 5 Bloods actor Delroy Lindo had recently joined the cast, but his role has not been revealed as of now. The reports about Blade’s plot so far suggest that the film will stick very close to the source material — the comic books.  Blade is directed by Mogul Mowgli helmer Bassam Tariq, who also co-wrote the film along with Stacy Osei-Kuffour.

  • Delroy Lindo joins cast of Marvel’s ‘Blade’

    By ANI

    WASHINGTON: Actor Delroy Lindo is joining the cast of Marvel Studios’ ‘Blade’, which features actor Mahershala Ali in the lead role.

    As per Variety, Lindo, who most recently appeared in the Netflix Western ‘The Harder They Fall’, is the first actor to join the cast since Ali broke the news of the ‘Blade’ reboot at the end of Marvel Studios’ 2019 panel at San Diego Comic-Con.

    Bassam Tariq is directing the feature project from a script by Stacy Osei-Kuffour.

    It is currently unclear who Lindo will be playing, but one strong possibility is Jamal Afari, who in the Marvel comics is the man who raised and mentored Blade — a.k.a. Eric Brooks — in the ways of vampire hunting when Eric was young.

    In the comics, Jamal is Black, but in the 1998 feature adaptation of ‘Blade’ starring Wesley Snipes, the character was renamed Abraham Whistler and cast with white actor Kris Kristofferson.

    Marvel has not yet announced a release date for ‘Blade’, but observers expect the film to debut in the fall of 2023.

    Lindo is coming off another critically-acclaimed collaboration with Spike Lee in Netflix’s ‘Da 5 Bloods’. In the streamer’s Western epic ‘The Harder They Fall’, he plays Bass Reeves, the real-life lawman who was an inspiration for the Lone Ranger.

    The actor will next appear in Neil Gaiman’s ‘Anansi Boys’ series at Amazon, and he’s set to make his directorial debut with the film ‘Jabari’s People’.

    Ali recently made his audio-only debut as Blade in a post-credits scene in Marvel Studios’ ‘Eternals’, in which Blade (off-screen) counsels Kit Harington’s Dane Whitman not to pick up a cursed sword known as the Ebony Blade.

    While the scene would suggest Harington will appear in Ali’s ‘Blade’ movie, the former ‘Game of Thrones’ star told Variety in October that he doesn’t know if that will happen. 

  • ‘Doctor Strange’, ‘Black Panther 2’ to ‘Avatar’ sequel: Disney India announces release slate

    By PTI

    MUMBAI: Disney India on Tuesday announced the release dates of some of the studio’s most awaited tentpoles films like “Doctor Strange: Multiverse Of Madness”, “Thor: Love and Thunder”, “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” and the sequel to “Avatar”.

    The slate for 2021-2022 will kickstart with the big ticket Diwali release, Marvel Studios’ “Eternals”, directed by Oscar winner Chloe Zhao.

    The superhero spectacle will be released on November 5 in six languages – English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.

    Marvel Studios’ “Doctor Strange: Multiverse Of Madness” will hit the screens on March 25, next year, followed by “Thor: Love and Thunder” on May 6.

    “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”, starring Lupita Nyong’o and Letitia Wright, is scheduled to be released theatrically on July 8.

    The Ryan Coogler directorial is a sequel to the 2018 “Black Panther”, which was the first superhero film to feature a virtually all-black cast, led by the late Chadwick Boseman.

    Marvel’s “Blade”, headlined by Mahershala Ali, will be released on October 7, 2022.

    Directed by Bassam Tariq, the film will see Ali play the titular vampire hunter in the new movie, taking over from actor Wesley Snipes, who essayed the role in the 1998 hit and its two sequels.

    “The Marvels”, starring Brie Larson, Iman Vellani and Teyonah Parris, will hit the screens on November 11, 2022.

    Veteran filmmaker James Cameron’s ambitious sequel to the blockbuster “Avatar” will release theatrically on December 16, next year.

    The film marks the return of original stars Sigourney Weaver, Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana.

    Kate Winslet and Cliff Curtis are the new additions to the cast.

    Bikram Duggal, Vice President and Head of Studios, Star and Disney India, said Disney will stay committed to bringing “unique stories” that will entertain audiences across the country.

    “In the coming months we will have an exciting slate that includes many Super Hero spectacles ushering in the new phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe starting with the release of ‘Eternals’ this Diwali.

    “Cinema has always been a key medium that brings people together for memorable experiences, and we are looking forward to creating magic on the big screen once again with our diverse and exciting content,” the statement read.

    Apart from “Eternals”, releases from the studio for 2021 include period drama “The Last Duel”, scheduled for October 22; computer-animated comedy adventure “Ron’s Gone Wrong” on October 29; Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “Encanto” on November 26; Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” on December 10, and 20th Century Studios’ “The King’s Man” on December 24.

    The 20th Century Studios will start 2022 with the much-awaited “Death on the Nile”.

    Directed by Kenneth Branagh, who reprises his role of detective Hercule Poirot, the film will release theatrically on February 11.

    It also stars Tom Bateman, Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer and Ali Fazal among others.

    Disney. Pixar’s “Turning Red” will open on March 11 while the studio’s other outing, “Lightyear”, will be released on June 17.

    Disney India recently released Simu Liu-fronted “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”, Ryan Reynolds’ “Free Guy” and “Jungle Cruise”, starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt.

  • We can’t deny what Wesley Snipes did: Bassam Tariq on making new ‘Blade’ movie

    By PTI

    LOS ANGELES: Director Bassam Tariq, who is set to tackle Marvel Studios’ film adaptation of the popular comic “Blade”, says that his take on the character will pay a tribute to the actor Wesley Snipes’ film trilogy.

    Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali is set to play the titular vampire hunter in the new movie, taking over from Snipes, who essayed the role in the 1998 hit and its two sequels.

    Playwright Stacy Osei-Kuffour is writing the script of the film with Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige producing.

    During a recent interview with IndieWire, Tariq promised that his version will honour Snipes’ contribution to the superhero genre.

    “What’s exciting about the film that we’re making is (there) hasn’t been a canon for ‘Blade’, as we’re reading through the comics and everything,” the director, best known for making the Riz Ahmed-starrer “Mogul Mowgli”, said.

    “Him being a daywalker is the one thing that’s been established, and you know we can’t deny what Wesley Snipes did, which was he basically got this whole ball rolling.

    A Black man created the superhero world that we’re in, that’s just the truth,” he added.

    Created by writer Marv Wolfman, Blade first made an appearance in the 1973 comic book “The Tomb of Dracula #10” as a supporting character.

    He is a vampire hunter–half-mortal, half-immortal–who tries to free the world from vampires as a way of avenging his mother, who was killed by a vampire as she gave birth to him.

    Tariq said he is quite excited to work with Ali and Osei-Kuffour on the much-awaited movie.

    “For me to now be working with somebody as talented and a juggernaut as Mahershala Ali, and the writer Stacy Osei-Kuffour, I’m just so, I’m so honoured to be working with real Black juggernauts and Black talent.

    “For me to just be with them in this room and listen and learn as I build this out, it’s really an honour,” he added.