During his decades-long acting career, Wesley Snipes has played a variety of characters, many of whom have been good guys. However, he has occasionally taken on villainous roles, most notably Simon Phoenix in Demolition Man. Now, over 25 years after that Marco Brambilla-directed movie came out, Snipes is returning to antagonist territory with his upcoming movie, Payline.
Written by Rob Robol and Jay S. Boyd, Payline is described as a casino heist story in the vein of “Oceans 11 meets Free Fire.” The movie is about a small-town casino that turns into a battleground after two groups of criminals try to rob it on the same night. In addition to performing on camera, Snipes will also executive produce Payline for Dawn’s Light Media and Maandi House Studios alongside Alexander Ferguson, while Allan Ungar (who worked on that Uncharted fan film Nathan Fillion starred in), Richard Switzer and Jason Cherubini (the latter two are from Dawn’s Light) are attached as producers.
No specific details were provided about who Wesley Snipes is specifically playing. If I had to guess, he’s either the leader of the gang that’s being framed as the “bad guys” in this heist or he’s the manager/owner of this casino these groups are breaking into. In any case, since this is Snipes’ first villain role since Demolition Man, this is surely a momentous occasion for him. Here’s what the actor had to say about Payline overall:
We at Maandi House Studios along with our sister companies and strategic partners are extremely excited to be working with Dawns Light Media on the kind of action film not seen in years. This is a vehicle to demonstrate the next generation of indie-film making in a 5G powered world. It is our goal to show how a 100% Certified Renewable Energy film production can show love for the environment, community and still produce a kick-ass popcorn movie.
Although he’s stretching his villainous muscles again for the first time in nearly three decades, Wesley Snipes will arguably always be best known for his time as a superhero, having played Eric Brooks, a.k.a. Blade, across three movies from 1998 to 2004. Snipes has expressed interest numerous times over the years in reprising Blade for a fourth movie, though there’s still no indication that will happen. In any case, Payline allows him to once again operate on the side of corruption rather than justice.
In recent years, Wesley Snipes has appeared in movies like The Expendables 3, Chi-Raq, Armed Response and The Recall, as well as the TV series The Player. Along with Payline, his other upcoming projects include the Netflix movie Dolemite Is My Name, where he’s playing D’Urville Martin alongside Eddie Murphy’s Rudy Ray Moore; the RZA drama Cut Throat City, which also stars Terrence Howard, T.I. and Eiza Gonzalez; and the TV series Paper Empire, which also stars Robert Davi, Denise Richards and Robert Knepper.
Payline’s release date hasn’t been announced yet, so stay tuned for that information. In the meantime, you can find out what movies are hitting theaters later this year in our 2019 release schedule.
