How the movie "Blade" was filmed: footage from filming and 16 interesting facts about the film (18 photos)

Not everyone knows, but Blade is not an original development by the scriptwriters, but a comic book series from the famous company Marvel Comics. The creators of this character are Gene Colan and Marv Wolfman. Blade made his comic book debut in July 1973.





1. Blade was originally supposed to be some kind of superhero comedy film, but writer/comic book writer/director David S. Goyer didn't see anything funny in Blade, so he rejected the comedy film concept. It was thanks to him that Blade became such a dark and harsh vampire hunter.



David S. Goyer

When David S. Goyer came to New Line Cinema with his script for the film Blade, the bosses liked the plot, especially since the company's president at that time was Michael De Luca, who was a comic book fan. But the studio bosses only wanted to see one specific actor as the main character, namely Laurence Fishburne, Denzel Washington or Wesley Snipes.

But Goyer himself was sure that only Wesley Snipes was suitable for this role, so it was decided to immediately turn to him.

When Wesley Snipes was offered the lead role in the film adaptation of Marvel comics, he believed that they wanted to offer him the role of Black Panther, which he himself was incredibly happy about. But when he heard that he was offered to play a dhampir (half-vampire) and vampire hunter nicknamed Blade, he only “scratched his head”, since he had never heard anything about this character before.



Stephen Dorff (Frost) and Wesley Snipes (Blade)

But when he found out that he would have to wear a stylish leather coat and constantly fight with enemies, he thought it was a great idea. Moreover, Snipes not only played the main role, but also personally directed the action scenes, and also became one of the producers of the film.

2. Despite the fact that Blade himself first appeared in Marvel comics back in 1973, there was no trace of Whistler (Blade's mentor) there. Whistler himself first appeared in the animated series Spider-Man (1994), and only then migrated to the film Blade. It was only in 2002 that Whistler first appeared in comics.



Whistler in the animated series "Spider-Man" (1994)

Well, since we touched on the original comics, we cannot help but mention that in the original Blade was English, while in the film he is American.



3. According to the original plan, Whistler and Blade were supposed to keep a vampire child on whom they tested the weapon. But the bosses and producers thought such a scene was simply terrible, so it was decided to abandon it.



4. As you probably know, Stan Lee (creator of many comic book characters) appeared in many Marvel superhero films in a small role (cameo). Stan Lee was also in the movie Blade. Specifically, he played a small role as a police officer. But in the end this scene was cut.



5. Jet Li could have played the main antagonist, Frost, but he ultimately turned it down in favor of Lethal Weapon 4. This, by the way, was his first, but not his last, villainous role.

6. The film "Blade" was inspired by the film "The Authority", which tells about gangsters from Harlem. After the success of this film, producer Peter Frankfurt began to think that if the narrowly focused "Authority" was able to collect money at the box office, then a cheerful, relatively inexpensive action film about a black superhero should not be a failure either.



And when he came to Marvel to see if they had any good black superhero in mind, he was offered the vampire hunter Blade.



7. Initially, they wanted to see David Fincher in the director's chair, but he refused this offer.

Then Stephen Norrington, who at that time had directed only one film, “The Death Machine,” was hired as a director. But Norrington himself became famous not forhe is a director, but a special effects master, because it was he who worked on the special effects for such cult films as “Aliens” and “Gremlins”. Also, it was he who came up with the design of all Blade's tattoos.

True, despite the success of Blade, Norrington did not gain a strong foothold as a director, since during his directorial career he directed only 4 films, including Blade. The last film in his directorial career was another comic book adaptation, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003).



Wesley Snipes and Stephen Norrington

Also, Norrington played a small role in the film as Michael Morbius, but in the end it was decided to abandon this scene.

But according to crew members, Norrington was incredibly difficult to work with because he was too unstable.

8. In the 90s, vampires were presented more as romantic characters, which David Goyer did not like. Personally, he himself saw vampires as drug addicts who are obsessed with bloodlust and will do anything to get a new fix. That's why the main villain, Frost, played by Stephen Dorff, looked more like an obsessed rebel drug addict than a classic villain.



Stephen Dorff and Wesley Snipes

Also, Goyer decided to abandon the classic vampire weaknesses, such as holy water or crosses. Goyer's vampires were only afraid of garlic, silver and ultraviolet radiation, which, by the way, can be temporarily suppressed with sunscreen.

9. Initially, Goyer planned for the role of Karen to be played by a white actress, but Wesley Snipes himself insisted that Karen must be a black and attractive woman. Therefore, actress N'Bush Wright was cast in this role.



10. That same multi-story vampire temple was filmed in an old abandoned shampoo factory.

11. Initially, the vampire Quinn was planned as a passing episodic character, but thanks to the charisma and acting of Donal Logan, his role was noticeably expanded.



12. Guardian of ancient vampire knowledge Pearl, who is a shapeless carcass, was created specifically for the film and was not in the comics. Thus, Goyer wanted to show that vampires can be not only attractive, but also repulsive.



By the way, the role of Pearl was played by actor Eric Edwards, whom many remember as fat Murph, Junior's classmate from the film Problem Child 2. But in fact, Pearl was played by three people at once. Eric Edward was only Pearl's face, while two other crew members were inside the suit and were responsible for the movements of the shapeless vampire's limbs.



13. Initially, the final battle was supposed to be completely different. Blade had to fight the huge bloody clot that Frost had turned into. But the scene was filmed very clumsily, and in principle the test audience did not like it, so it was decided to reshoot the final battle and ending.



In order to reshoot the final fight scene, actor Stephen Dorff had to learn to fence. But there was one more nuance. Due to the red lenses that Dorf wore, he could see very poorly, so fencing almost blindly was quite a challenge.



Moreover, the most interesting thing is that Dorf, who was inexperienced in martial arts, was chosen for this role also because in the film he did not have to fight with anyone. But in the end he still had to fight.

14. The filmmakers wanted to bring in the Prodigy group to create the film's soundtrack, since the British rave group was blowing up various charts at the time. But the group decided against it due to their very busy schedule.



15. With a budget of $45 million, Blade earned $131.1 million at the box office, making it a box office success.

Thanks to this, Marvel realized that they needed to make films about their superheroes, and that people would watch them. So, in fact, it was thanks to the film "Blade" that the Marvel company began to filmtheir heroes. True, now the new Marvel films are getting worse and worse.

16. Despite the fact that Wesley Snipes took the filming seriously and did everything to play his role 100%, he did not bother with memorizing the text, because he believed that this was not necessary due to the fact that his character was a man of few words.