Marvel Reportedly Zeroing in on a New Director for BLADE
Marvel Studios' Blade reboot has not had an easy road of development since it was first announced four years ago. The movie has been met with several issues and it doesn’t seem like it’s any closer to going into production.
The movie has gone through a number of directors and writers, the last filmmaker being Yann Demange, who left the project several months ago.
Marvel is reportedly zeroing in on a new director, though, as The World of Reel's Jordan Ruimy, says that the studio recently met with several potential directors, and Jeymes Samuel "impressed the Marvel brass."
We don’t know if the filmmaker is actually in talks, but the source believes there's a good chance that this is the guy who will end up landing the gig.
Samuel previously helmed the Netflix western The Harder They Fall, and the recent revisionist religious epic The Book of Clarence. So, what you thought about those movies will determine if you think he is a good director or not. I thought the films were fine.
It’s also mentioned that the latest draft of the script written by Eric Pearson, who is the sixth writer to work on the project after Michael Green, Stacy Osei-Kuffour, Michael Starrbury, Beau DeMayo and Nic Pizzolatto - has "finally satisfied everyone involved."
That being said, there's a good chance the movie will meet its current shoot date of November 1st.
Mahershala Ali is still attached to the film and it will be Rated R. Marvel President Kevin Feige recently talked about the rating, saying:
“For the last few years, as we’ve been trying to crack that movie, the most important thing for us is not rushing it. And making sure we are making the right Blade movie.
“There were some great Blade movies years ago… they were all rated R. So I think that’s inherent–like Deadpool–inherent with the character of Blade.”
As for why the film has been taking so long to develop, Feige likened the delays to Deadpool & Wolverine, saying that they are just waiting for the “magic thing to fall into place.”
He said: “It's part of the process. And when you have a character as famous as Blade, and an actor as famous as Mahershala, everything that happens just gets a lot of attention.
“I'm sure you've heard us talk about, we were struggling finding the perfect reason for Deadpool to exist, for the third Deadpool movie in the MCU, and then Hugh Jackman called, and it fell into place.
“Sometimes you need that magic thing that falls into place. And sometimes it happens – sometimes it takes a day. Sometimes it takes two years. Sometimes it takes 10 years. But that's what you really should be waiting for, until you make something.”
Ali's last update on the project was: “We’re working on it. That’s the best I could tell you. I’m really encouraged with the direction of the project. I think we’ll be back at it relatively soon.”
“I’m sincerely encouraged in terms of where things are at and who’s on board and who’s leading the way as far as the writing of the script and the directing and all that,” he added.
“So that’s the extent of what I can tell you.”
Marvel and Disney have spent millions of dollars on Blade throughout the development and preproduction process, so hopefully they actually figure this out soon and get this production up and running.