Marvel’s Blade is reportedly not doing so well behind the scenes. The film recently lost its director, Bassam Tariq, just over a month before it was due to begin shooting in November. Tariq gave no reason for his departure from the project. In other reports, lead actor Mahershala Ali is apparently quite frustrated with the current process, including a 90 page script that only includes two “lackluster” action sequences.
This might sound strange considering that Blade‘s vampire-slaying premise lends itself to plenty of great action, so hearing about the film only including two action scenes is bizarre – even by MCU standards. The reports come from noted industry insider Jeff Sneider, whose sources told him “the current BLADE script is roughly 90 pages and features exactly TWO (lackluster) action sequences. Mahershala said to be very frustrated with the process.”
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While not always the case, the general rule of script to film translations equals roughly one page per minute. At 90 pages, it would make it a considerably short MCU film, even if those two action sequences bump it up by a few minutes. It’s hard to tell exactly what’s happening with the film’s production right now, but all these factors might’ve contributed to Tariq exiting the project altogether.
Needless to say, Marvel Studios will be scrambling to find a replacement director for Blade. Sneider added that Beau DeMayo, the writer behind The Witcher and Moon Knight, is now working on script rewrites. The current script was penned by HBO’s Watchmen writer Stacy Osei-Kuffour.
Hopefully a suitable director can be found soon before production is scheduled to begin in November or it might delay Marvel’s Blade and thus, change around some dates currently laid out by Marvel Studios for the remaining phases of the MCU. John Wick director Chad Stahelski previously told Kevin Feige that he’d like to direct Blade, but Stahelski may have his hands full with the upcoming Ghost of Tsushima live-action adaptation at the moment.
Source: Jeff Sneider
