Director Stephen Norrington’s film adaptation of Marvel’s Blade is a pretty awesome film that still holds up after all these years. It’s crazy to think that in the infancy of Marvel movies this film went super dark, violent, and rated R. It took years to get to a place where studios were comfortable making an R-rated comic book film again with projects like Logan and Deadpool.
Years ago, Del Toro did an interview in which he expressed his love for Blade, saying that the opening scene of the movie made him “crap his pants.” He also described the film as having a “James Cameron sensibility,” which you can totally see! I never thought of that until I heard this interview, but he’s right!
As you know, Del Toro went on to direct Blade II, but he was looking to do some things a lot differently from Norrington’s “techno, urban, and “vibrant,” first film. He explained what he was going for, saying:
“I was interested in doing a different type of action. A more Japanese anime, I was interested in doing more comic book style in colors, framing, and so forth. More gothic horror, ultimately a more scary more crazy movie than the first one.”
He went on to say that his ultimate goal was to create “a crazy gore-drenched cartoon,” and he totally pulled that off. I’m a fan of both Blade and Blade II and I appreciate and enjoy each of their distinct differences in style and storytelling.
Blade II played a big part in kickstarting Del Toro’s career. He actually hired Hellboy creator Mike Mignola to work on the film, and we all know where that led!
Via: /Film