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Wesley Snipes Takes Credit For RDJ’s Iron Man, Talks Blade’s Effect On Marvel Films, & Makes A Subtle Dig At David Goyer

Snipes, no sniping!

BladeTrinity

If I’m being honest, I don’t remember a whole lot about Blade: Trinity. Jessica Biel played Hawkeye, right?

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Wesley Snipes, who recently spent some time in jail for tax evasion, was on a press junket for his latest film The Expendables 3 when the topic of superhero films came up. He reminisced about his time bringing a comic book character to life for the Blade franchise, telling The Telegraph, “You know, if I would have understood the potential of… doing, or adapting comic book characters to feature films, and also the tie-in to gaming and digital technology, when I was doing the first Blade films, then I’d be in a different business right now. I’d be in a whole different ball game.”

He continued, “There were empires and institutions that were built off the Blade franchise. I mean, look at Marvel now, to this day. It’s a megalith!…More and more people are recognising the contribution that Blade made to this resurgence, or this model, this new business. At the time when Blade was offered to me, my management and my agents all thought I was out of my mind for doing it. They told me, ‘You know, you’re a classically trained actor. Why would you want to even play a vampire from a comic book?’ I was, ‘Everything you’re saying is right, but here’s the thing – I’ve never seen a movie like this.’”

It’s certainly true, Blade fell in that awkward time between things like the original Superman franchise and the current crop of mega-hits like Spider-Man and Batman Begins. But Blade: Trinity, written, produced and directed by David S. Goyer, didn’t quite hit the mark in 2004. The Telegraph writes:

Guillermo Del Toro’s wickedly entertaining Blade II (2002) was an even bigger hit. So what went wrong with Trinity? Rumours were rife of a tempestuous set, with Snipes at loggerheads with writer-turned-director David S Goyer and New Line over creative control. When it came out and flopped, was he disappointed? “I wouldn’t call it a disappointment. More of an expectation.” His reasons for this are pithy to the max. “Bad ingredients going in, bad cake coming out. If you’ve got sour milk going in your cake, you’re going to get sour cake.” A throaty laugh comes out.

Ouch.

Snipes also had a few words on Robert Downey Jr. who apparently came to the actor for advice pre-Iron Man.

Robert is a monster of a performer and an artist. He’s an extremely multitalented actor that I respect. I enjoyed working with him. And then he goes on to be an action hero. And I remember he actually called me, but I didn’t return the phone call at the time. Robert was concerned before Iron Man and was trying to find out what it’s like to play this comic book character, because I had already done Blade. Not to say that… OK, I’ll take all the credit for his success as Iron Man…

He also told The Telegraph Blade 4 is “very much a possibility,” adding del Toro should give him a call. What do you think? Should he?

(via Spinoff Online)

Previously in David S. Goyer

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Jill Pantozzi
Jill Pantozzi is a pop-culture journalist and host who writes about all things nerdy and beyond! She’s Editor in Chief of the geek girl culture site The Mary Sue (Abrams Media Network), and hosts her own blog “Has Boobs, Reads Comics” (TheNerdyBird.com). She co-hosts the Crazy Sexy Geeks podcast along with superhero historian Alan Kistler, contributed to a book of essays titled “Chicks Read Comics,” (Mad Norwegian Press) and had her first comic book story in the IDW anthology, “Womanthology.” In 2012, she was featured on National Geographic’s "Comic Store Heroes," a documentary on the lives of comic book fans and the following year she was one of many Batman fans profiled in the documentary, "Legends of the Knight."

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