ROTTEN TOMATOES: "Blade" Makes the Jump Onto Spike (TV, that is)

"Blade" Makes the Jump Onto Spike (TV, that is)

by Scott Weinberg | January 13, 2006

Thanks to ComingSoon.net for sharing a press release from Spike TV network, the short version of which is this: "Blade" is being adapted into a TV series. And no, Wesley Snipes is not involved.

"Spike TV is set to bring Blade, one of Hollywood's most successful theatrical franchises, to television. The "Blade" trilogy, which has earned more than $400 million worldwide, will be adapted into a two-hour original drama that marks the network's first foray into scripted entertainment. Produced by New Line Television, Blade premieres on Spike TV in June 2006.

"'Blade' is perfectly suited for Spike TV and its male viewers," says Pancho Mansfield, Executive Vice President, Original Programming at Spike TV. "The new 'Blade' promises to capture what men want to see: thrilling action and effects combined with an intelligent and highly creative story."

David S. Goyer, who wrote the screenplays for the "Blade" trilogy as well as Batman Begins, serves as executive producer and co-wrote the script with popular comic book author Geoff Johns. Peter O'Fallon (Suicide Kings, Eureka, American Gothic) serves as director.

Spike TV's Blade focuses on Marvel's eponymous immortal warrior of the same name fighting a shadowy underworld of vampires who want to destroy the human race. The title character is a half-man, half-vampire who uses his incredible powers and skills to fearlessly battle the demonic creatures of the night in a blood-drenched crusade to prevent the ascendance of vampires over mankind.

Kirk "Sticky" Jones (Over There) has been cast in the leading role of "Blade." Jill Wagner (Monk), Neil Jackson (Stargate SG-1), Nelson Lee (Traffic, the TV mini-series) and Jessica Gower (Blurred) round out the cast for the tele-picture.

Bill McGoldrick, Vice President, Original Programming and Lisa Ullmann, Director of Original Programming, are executives responsible for production at Spike TV. Avi Arad, President and CEO of Marvel Studios, Ari Arad, Executive Vice President, Marvel Studios, Jim Rosenthal and Jon Kroll of New Line Television will serve as executive producers."

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(1-12 of 12 posts) | Reply

Blue Arc writes:
on Jan 13 2006 05:53 AM

Successful franchise my butt.

(Reply to this)

elziard writes:
on Jan 13 2006 07:30 AM

$400 million is successful.
if you are basing 'success' on your personal like or dislike of the franchise, you are sadly mistaken as to what the studio and investors base their interpretation of the word.

personally i liked the series and despite a weak third movie (what trilogy does not have a weak third?) which had it's moments (ryan reynolds a bit over the top, but jessica beil.....damn! hot.) and klunks (total miscasting of dracula). this will do well on TV like perhaps stargate SG1 and highlander from silver to small screen.

(Reply to this)

Koooomar writes:
on Jan 13 2006 09:36 AM

I'll never forgive Goyer for what he did to the blade franhcise. I loved those damn movies. They were great popcorn fun that were highly rewatchable. The "blood drenched club fight scene" is still one of my favourite fight scenes of all time. And then the second one was great in the way that it took Blade and added a few layers to his charcter. It had a great script with very good direction from Del toro. I wished he had stayed with the blade series for the last one, because the story was one i thought would have fit his style perfectly. He could have brought that same epic feel he brings to all his movies to the table and really delivered a classic action film. instead, what we got was a classic exercise in how to take a movie with a great story intended for a more mature audience, and "teen" it up to the point where Blade becomes a "gangsta", Jessica Biel is only in the movie because she is Jessica Biel, And Dracula is a "calvin Klein" model. My god, the first two movies had really good villains. Deacon frost ranks right up there with some of my all time favourite villains, and the story involving the reapers and the Vanpire family had a wonderful almost greek tragedy feel to it.

My point is, Goyer proved to the world when he released blade three that all it was to him was a cheque. He didnt care about these characters because the film was exactly what the first two movies could have been. Over stylized(which means rapid fire editing) hollywood garbage, marketed to the teen pop world as "just another vampire movie with kung fu and a killer soundtrack." Call me crazy but I always thought blade was about a whole lot more then that. the directors of the first two films saw something with that charcter and this alternate universe and decided to explore some of that and give the audience something they've never seen before, which is exactly what audiences want to see. Bottom line, if the director for this series(who's suicide kings i thought was something that had everything right except the director) sees this chance to explore a character rather then exploit him, i think it oculd be a great series. untill then though, we just have to wait for it to come out and judge it then.

(Reply to this)

theCurse writes:
on Jan 13 2006 10:14 AM

So is this a tv series or a tv movie? The article says both.

I feel casting an individual named "Sticky Fingaz" as the lead role in anything is a bit of a misjudgement. It will certainly do nothing to pull the diehards back into the fold.

(Reply to this)

Bane Of Anubis writes:
on Jan 13 2006 12:38 PM

[b]Lowlander[/b]
Maybe this will be like the Highlander series, though, in that case, the acting was a step up from movie to TV (at least for that main character -- can't remember his name -- bad accent, bad acting... Christopher Lambert)

(Reply to this)

lovelykeira writes:
on Jan 13 2006 02:30 PM

Yea the 3rd film killed this franchise, the first two were awsome.

(Reply to this)

killamike316 writes:
on Jan 13 2006 09:32 PM

so wat, i still like the blade franchise. the 3rd movie did do lower than expected, but it still was successful interntionally. At least it was successful somewhere

(Reply to this)

killamike316 writes:
on Jan 13 2006 09:34 PM

In reply to this comment (#829957)
HEy stupid the Blade series was successful .The first and second blad movies were major hits at the boxoffice.

(Reply to this)

getomans writes:
on Jan 14 2006 10:34 AM

the blade series was successful. at least the third one didnt literally bomb, like only make 23 or 26 million. it made more than half of that,BLAde 3 made about 52 mil. more than 130 mil worldwide. THE MATRIX,now the third matrix movie was a horrible way to end the series.i liked the blade trilogy, the first one was the best one.

(Reply to this)

fynejackie writes:
on Jan 14 2006 10:39 AM

i like the blade franchise/trilogy. i liked all the movies

(Reply to this)

Identity Crisis writes:
on Jan 15 2006 07:27 PM

In reply to this comment (#829960)
I've actaully seen "sticky's" work previous on the shield and over there and he was a competent enough actor. I get your point about the name though.

My concern is that doing action on the small screen is just too expensive to ever do right, especially for a smaller channel like Spike. I suppose Rome did a good one, but that's pretty much the only action, without guns, that I've ever seen work as an extended fight scene.

It could be good, but I don't want to see blade fighting vampires with the same sound-effected punches and kicks that were a staple of shows like alias and buffy. good despite those things, but the fighting was definately not cool. and blade deserves cool.

(Reply to this)

sokiveta.com writes:
on Jan 16 2006 01:31 AM

I'm with Bane, hopefully this will be like the Highlander series, which in my opinion ranks higher than the actual movies.

sequels are always tricky. Matrix 3 is a great example of a bad third movie, but think about Star Wars: Episode III (good comeback) and Rocky 3 (if only they would have stopped there). The third Lord of the Rings was good (but I consider those three movies as one big movie).

There are a lot of "third" movies coming out: Spider-Man 3, X-Men 3, Mission Impossible 3, Oceans 13, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Duce Bigalo Canadian Gigalo, etc.

(Reply to this)

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