Seems a lot of people are talking to Snipes lately while completely ignoring just how completely uninterested he was in doing Blade Trinity. But then, by many accounts that film was doomed first by David Goyer and studio meddling.
Blade also wasn’t obviously a “comic book” movie to the general public. He doesn’t fly or shoot lasers out of his eyes or anything, he’s just a guy with a sword who doesn’t like vampires. Easy sell to a general audience.
Howard the Duck is another character that the moviegoing public would never know came from a comic book. Plus the movie was such a trainwreck it’s probably a good thing people didn’t associate it with comic books.
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Hollywood, circa 1992:
Studio exec 1: Hey, you know how these Batman and Ninja Turtles movies are cleaning up, right? And people still love Superman.
Studio exec 2: Yeah?
Studio exec 1: So I’m wondering if there’s an untapped market out there for a movie with a hero other audiences could identify with. Nobody’s made a major movie about a black superhero yet! I’m thinking we could put something on screen for 30 or 40 million bucks that would blow people away.
Studio exec 2: I like it! There are a lot of established black comic book heroes out there we could adapt. I mean you have Luke Cage, Black Panther, Cyborg…
Studio exec 1: Nah, nobody cares about that shit. We’ll just make up our own hero who fights, like, crack pushers and use the money we saved on licensing budget to get Bill Cosby to play a hobo. It can be a comedy!
15 years later:
Studio exec 1: OK, that last attempt didn’t work. I think I figured out what went wrong.
Studio exec 2: We should have licensed an established comic book superhero and put him into a story that didn’t hinge on demeaning stereotypes about inner city black people?
Studio exec 1: No, the problem is that we wasted all that money on a supporting actor to play a homeless guy. We should have spent that money to cast an A-lister as a homeless hero! Maybe even make him an unlikable alcoholic! That’s action comedy gold.
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