It's the 20th anniversary of Blade,
and we're taking a look at the whole franchise to commemorate the first hero
of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, well, almost the first.
Here are seven things you didn't know about Blade, probably.
(Sound) Before Black Panther broke all the records and
became a landmark for African-American progress in Hollywood,
it was Wesley Snipes' vampire hunting anti-hero Blade who staked his claim as
Marvel's first black superhero at the cinema, but the firsts don't stop there.
Besides being the first R-rated Marvel movie, sorry Deadpool, but
more on that later, it was also the first Marvel sequel and
trilogy, as well as the first superhero movie from screenwriter David S Goyer,
who would later develop the Christopher Nolan Batman films, and others.
And the original Blade should have been the first Stan Lee cameo, with him playing
a cop in this scene, though it was unfortunately cut for some reason.
But as close as I can tell, Blade does have the great honor of featuring
the very first superhero landing on film. >> Lock up your daughters, boys and girls,
the dark knight returns.
(Sound) >> Before becoming a household name with
the hit movies, the Blade character was far from being on the super hero A list.
In fact, Wesley Snipes hadn't even heard about Blade until his initial attempts to
make a Black Panther movie fell through.
Boom, bonus Black Panther thing.
So you probably didn't know that they took some major liberties in adapting Blade for
the big screen.
In the comics, he was originally granted certain vampire traits
after his mother was bitten by Deacon Frost, but
they were only a longer life span and the ability to sense super natural creatures.
No super strength, no super healing, no fangs, no blood lust,
and no sweet trench coats.
Also, he was supposed to have been raised in London, but, can you imagine Snipes
with an English accent? >> The fuck.
Are you out of your damned mind?
(Sound) >> Of course,
with any super hero action film full of stunts and explosions,
there are bound to be a few injuries, and the Blade movies are no exception.
Wesley cut his hand on his own sword on Blade II, Jessica Biel almost screwed up
her back and Ryan Reynolds took a few real lumps in Blade Trinity just to name a few.
But the worst had to be Dona Logue when he dislocated his jaw filming this scene.
Donal's jaw was so far out of socket, he couldn't even talk.
Unfortunately, the scene was shot in an abandoned hospital, so
the half naked actor was rushed to a real Where he scared the living (Bleep) out of
everyone who thought he was an actual vampire burn victim, which I'm sure was
very flattering for the makeup guy, unfortunate for literally everyone else.
(Sound) Well besides life and limb, there was also a fair amount of property that
was destroyed, notably a $300,000 camera when Jessica Biel shot an arrow into it.
Besides four hours of training every day, Biel had an additional hour of archery
over the course of seven months, so when she was directed to aim for the camera,
it should come as no surprise that she got a bulls-eye even at 50 feet away.
(Sound) Before his record breaking success with Deadpool, no the other Deadpool,
Ryan Reynolds' first attempted super hero success was Hannibal King in
Blade Trinity.
And if you're thinking he should have just stuck to playing Deadpool and
saved us all some grief, well, that was actually kind of the plan.
Much like Blade, the Hannibal King character was far from a fan favorite, so
when it came time to start developing his character,
he based Hannibal on the very popular character Deadpool.
While Reynolds was onset, a studio exec gave him a stack of Deadpool comics and
noted that since Ryan's character was basically Deadpool with
the snarkiness and the weapons, that he should actually just
play Deadpool. >> I ate a lot of garlic.
And I just farted. >> And
thus, the long journey to Deadpool began, well, the lucrative Deadpool, that is.
(Sound) Despite the best efforts of Ryan Reynolds, this vampire Pomeranian,
or these snarky goth kids, Trinity was the end of the Blade movie series.
But with a zany recipe like that, it must have at least made for a fun shoot, right?
Well, no. Having major issues with the script,
cast and director, Wesley Snipes hated the project and
the set became a nightmare to work on.
According to reports from Patton Oswalt, Wesley would only come out of his trailer
for close-ups, left much of the filming to his stunt double.
He also accused David S Goyer of being racist for hiring an all white cast,
a point Snipes cited later when he sued the production for $5 million.
You're kids.
You're not ready to role with this.
I mean look at the way you're dressed. >> This scene,
where he gives the night stalkers a real talking to, was at Snipe's insistence so
he could air a few grievances.
He also didn't like the truck he was rescued in so that was swapped out for
the next scene.
Also, this part where he leaves Ryan and Jessica's characters after being
rescued was because he hated doing scenes with Reynolds whose ad libbed
insults were not helping matters. >> He hates me,
doesn't he? >> Yeah.
>> By the end of the production,
Wesley would only respond to Blade,
and his only communication to the director was through Post-It notes.
So I guess there are worse problems a movie
can have than vampire pomeranians. >> Like what?
>> Like me.
(Sound) >> Let's end with a thing about, well,
endings.
With the exception of Blade II, each story has had multiple endings that were
totally different than what ended up on film.
The first Blade movie had an ending where Deacon Frost actually turns into a CGI
blood god tornado that test audiences hated so much, they went back and
re-shot this sword fight.
Originally the Blood God was supposed to win, turning the world into vampires, and
the sequels were supposed to be a mixture of I Am Legend and Mad Max.
I, for one, am furious that didn't happen.
There was also an alternate Blade Trinity ending that can be seen on the uncut
version where Blade jumps off the autopsy table and kicks some lab coat ass, though
they did resort to CGI to actually open his eyes, and the rest was a stunt double
since Wesley refused to open his eyes. >> Also, just a thought, but you might
want to consider blinking once in a while. >> There was also
an ending with a werewolf that was shot using just Reynolds and Biel, probably
in an attempt to do a Blade sequel with actors who took simple direction like,
please open your eyes.
That's all the things for today, but hit the thumbs up if you're still rocking
your leather trench coat, and let us know in the comments if you're thirsty for
more Blade things, and we might just do a part two,
not to be confused with Blade II, though that would be part of it.
You see, what I'm getting at here is that- >> Some mother (Bleep) are always
trying to ice skate uphill.
Thanks for watching and subscribe to Cinefix for
more trueish things about movies and
sometimes passive aggressive poster notes right here on Things You Didn't Know.
(Music)