Blade director Bassam Tariq exits Marvel movie ahead of production

Marvel Studios’ Blade faces a major shift as director Bassam Tariq exits the film. Before you jump to any conclusions, it sounds like it was just a matter of scheduling; at least, that’s what I out of Marvel’s statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “Due to continued shifts in our production schedule, Bassam is no longer moving forward as director of Blade but will remain an executive producer on the film,” it reads. “We appreciate Bassam’s talent and all the work he’s done getting Blade to where it is.”

In his separate statement, Tariq thanked Marvel: “It’s been an honor working with the wonderful folks at Marvel. We were able to put together a killer cast and crew. Eager to see where the next director takes the film.”

The new Blade film, slated for a November 3, 2023 release, was meant to start production in November in Atlanta. It is unclear, at the moment, how Bassam Tariq’s departure will impact it, but we can only hope that things will continue to stay on schedule. Currently no new director is attached to the film, but sources say that Marvel is working on finding one ASAP. Fingers crossed they find the perfect one.

The movie is set to star Oscar winner Mahershala Ali in the lead role alongside Delroy Lindo and Old‘s Aaron Pierre. Blade first appeared in Marvel comics in the 1970s and was introduced as a half-mortal, half-immortal vampire hunter trying to avenge his mother’s death. Wesley Snipes played the role in a series of movies in the early 2000s, but now the baton is being handed off.

Ali’s Blade made a surprise voice cameo in a post-credits scene in Eternals. We’ve been waiting for more for a long time. Hopefully we get happier updates soon.

Christian Bale tried and failed to turn Thor: Love and Thunder into a rated-R film

Christian Bale’s turn as Gorr the God Butcher was exciting, although it was disappointing that he didn’t really, y’know, butcher any Gods. However, speaking to Inverse, it sounds like Bale worked hard to push Thor: Love and Thunder into rated-R territory:

"With Thor: Love And Thunder, Taika [Waititi] and me, we kind of knew that some of the stuff we were doing probably wouldn’t end up in the film, but we wanted to just push it and see. Ultimately, it is and should be a film that all the family can go and enjoy. And Chris Hemsworth, a couple of times he looked at me it was like, Dude, that’s a little too far. I don’t think anyone’s gonna want to see that unless it’s an R-rated film. But it was a great joy to give it a shot. And we had a lot of fun in there doing certain scenes and takes on certain scene choices, even if they didn’t end up in the final cut."

Based on what Bale had to say, the original cut was more than four hours long, and I can only imagine the kinds of scenes they took out. Unfortunately, we will likely never see the “director’s cut” version of the film, as Waititi has come out strongly against the idea. We’ll just have to take Bale’s word that it got crazy.

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