The Continental director reveals why he turned down directing Blade
Summary
- Albert Hughes reveals why he turned down the chance to direct at Marvel blade reboot, citing discomfort with the controlled nature of the superhero film system.
- The reboot of blade faces the challenge of outdoing Wesley Snipes’ popular version, and creative differences with lead actor Mahershala Ali have led to delays.
- Marvel Studios has a history of conflicts and delays on projects, such as: Daredevil: Reborn, due to changes in directors and writers. The release date for blade may still be subject to revision.
The director of The Continental: From the world of John Wickthe first TV show from the Keanu Reeves action franchise, which Albert Hughes almost directed the reboot blade for Marvel Studios. However, the filmmaker ultimately said no to the MCU and recently explained exactly why he decided to walk away from the project.
blade is one of the MCU’s most anticipated projects, but also one of the most controversial. It was in 2019 when Marvel Studios announced that the vampire hunter would be officially introduced into the Marvel Universe following Disney’s purchase of Fox and Mahershala Ali would play him.
Since then, many names have been linked to the production as the team behind the scenes was constantly changing. And one of those who came very close to directing the film was Hughes. In conversation with Josh Horowitz on his podcast Happy, sad, confusedthe director of The Continental explained the reasons why he ultimately decided to decline the offer to direct blade:
“I’ve talked to the obvious studio a few times about superhero movies, but I always felt uncomfortable because I knew it was a system. And they are very nice, and I went through a long process. In fact I broke down all of their films and put them in a spreadsheet and broke down the box office, looked at the theme music, where the VFX ranks, I had to do a deep dive into them. And I’m halfway there, not very close, halfway through the process, and I think, “No, I would implode and not be able to do what I do because of the controlled nature of this world.” And I don’t understand why a real filmmaker would want to be in this system. I understand why junior staff would do what they do well. You find people at the right time. But I think I would implode. “
What’s wrong with Blade?
The reboot of blade has a difficult task, which is to overcome the high bar set by the Wesley Snipes version. Given this challenge and with such an acclaimed actor as Ali in the lead role, the demands on the studio are the highest. In fact, most of the changes to the script are due to the actor not liking the story as presented in the first drafts. A recent report revealed that the two-time Oscar winner was close to leaving the project due to creative differences and that this is the reason for most of the production delays.
This isn’t the first time a project has caused conflict for Marvel Studios. Many productions in the past have had to postpone their releases due to the constant change of directors or writers, as was the case with “ Daredevil: Reborn. The series, starring Charlie Cox, had managed to film some content before the actors’ strike, and when Kevin Feige saw the footage, he was not convinced by the result and decided to rewrite the entire series and the team behind it change.
The arrival of blade The current date is February 14, 2025, although this could change again in the near future.
