At the peak of his career, Wesley Snipes delivered a gift unto the cinematic world that would be his crowning achievement. That gift was the double tap we call Blade and Blade II, which not only gave Snipes a career-defining role that he would cash in on with two sequels, but also kept comic movies alive after Batman And Robin tried its best to kill them. Unfortunately, between Wesley Snipes' tax problems and the horror that was Blade: Trinity, the series gave way to a crappy Spike TV series and eventually died. Now that comic movies are cool, and vampires are starting to get their bite back, it looks like it's time to welcome back the Daywalker.
At least, that's what the NY Daily News seems to believe, as it's obtained the following scoop exclusive to its Confidenti@l column:
Confidenti@l has learned Wesley Snipes is set to reprise his lead role in "Blade," the 1998 vampire thriller that made more than $130 million and generated two sequels. Sources close to Snipes tells us the 52-year-old actor’s comeback after being released from prison in April 2013 (after serving two and a half years for tax evasion) is "looking good" and that he’ll make $3 million from this film, plus a cut of the profits.
Sounds great, doesn't it? After all, it wasn't too long ago that Wesley Snipes said he'd be up for another Blade movie if the opportunity ever arose. And the character has been gone long enough that the sting of Blade: Trinity has worn off to enough of a degree that this could be met with some positive feelings from the comic fans at the movies. However, there is still one minor fly in the ointment that could cause this entire matter to end before it began: the rights to Blade reverted to Marvel, who is now owned by Disney. Do you see Disney making a movie that teaches children such NSFW lessons as we see in this clip from the first Blade?
Blade was a New Line/Warner Bros production, and despite the rights to the actual character being back home at Marvel, the rights of the first three films are probably still snug with the studio that gave birth to its success. So not only is there a content issue, there's also a rights issue in consideration here. The best case scenario would be a two step process, which would start with Disney buying the rights to the original films for a pittance that New Line/Warner Bros could definitely use after this summer's mixed bag of releases. Once that's out of the way, Disney can dust off the Touchstone Pictures or Hollywood Pictures brands and start making "dark Marvel" movies for more mature audiences through one of these two labels.
Of course, this is all negated by the fact that this is a scoop in a New York newspaper. They love to make up movie business that executives haven't even dreamed of, so there is still a chance that this is all bunk. In the meantime, feel free to start creating some internet buzz to get this puppy up and running. If the right people are listening, we could make this happen! As for Wesley Snipes, you can see him currently in The Expendables III.
