Actor Stephen Dorff doesn't expect much from Marvel Studios' upcoming Blade reboot.
In an interview with Variety, the actor who played supervillain Deacon Frost opposite Wesley Snipes as the original Blade spoke freely about the Marvel Cinematic Universe reboot possibly being too sanitized to live up to the gritty R-rated 1998 film. "Marvel is used to me trashing them anyway," Dorff said. "How's that PG Blade movie going for you, that can't get a director? [laughs] Because anybody who goes there is going to be laughed at by everyone, because we already did it and made it the best. There's no Steve Norrington out there."
Dorff's jab about the empty director's chair refers to the film's previous director Bassam Tariq leaving the project in September 2022 due to "continued shifts in [the] production schedule." Additionally, issues with the production, including a change in screenwriters from Watchmen's Stacy Amma Osei-Kuffour to X-Men '97's Beau DeMayo, led to the reboot's star Mahershala Ali taking a hands-on approach to the creative process. Tariq was eventually replaced by Lovecraft Country director Yann Demange.
Wesley Snipes Has Already Weighed in on the Rating
As for the film's rating, Marvel Studios' Blade reboot will most likely be PG-13, in keeping with most MCU films. Original Blade lead Snipes believes the rating should not be a factor in good storytelling. "As long as it's true and organic to the subject matter, the plot, and the world that's created," Snipes said. "If there's consistency, I think it's fine [to be PG-13]."
Directed by Stephen Norrington and starring Snipes, 1998's Blade was the first truly successful Marvel adaption to hit the big screen. Produced on a budget of $45 million, Blade grossed $131 million worldwide and spawned two sequels, 2002's Blade II and 2004's Blade: Trinity. Though he met a bloody end in Blade, Dorff had ideas for a Deacon Frost spinoff that did not come to fruition.
"Me and [director] Steve Norrington had a cool treatment for that, and when vampires got all this trending again, we thought we should do the adult version, more of like a Scarface Deacon Frost movie," Dorff said. "And it sounded cool, this treatment, but then there was so many legal things... So the idea me and Steve had, we might just end up fictionalizing it and just making a new character which might even be better for us."
Marvel Studios' Blade reboot is set to arrive in theaters on Sept. 6, 2024.
Source: Variety