The behind the scenes problems with Blade: Trinity
Patton Oswalt has lifted the lid on the behind the scenes issues with Blade: Trinity. Er, Wesley Snipes doesn't come out of this well.
The third Blade movie, Blade: Trinity, is one with no shortage of problems. But given the apparent problems behind the scenes, perhaps that's no surprise.
In a new and quite brilliant interview with The A.V. Club, Patton Oswalt has revealed that all wasn't well on the set of Blade: Trinity, and Wesley Snipes doesn't come out of it well at all.
"He wouldn't come out of his trailer and he would smoke weed all day", recalls Oswalt. "Then I remember one day on the set- they let everyone pick their own clothes - there was one black actor who was also kind of a club kid. And he wore this shirt with the word 'Garbage' on it in big stylish letters. It was his shirt. And Wesley came down to the set, which he only did for close-ups. Everything else was done by his stand-in. I only did one scene with him. But he comes on and goes, 'There’s only one other black guy in the movie, and you make him wear a shirt that says ‘Garbage?’ You racist mothefucker!' And he tried to strangle the director, David Goyer".
Oswalt recalls that Snipes would stay in character throughout the whole shoot for the film, and when Oswalt introduced himself, Snipes simply said "I'm Blade". Furthermore, "a lot of the lines that Ryan Reynolds has were just a result of Wesley not being there".
It all came to a head when Wesley Snipes apparently sat down with David Goyer and said, according to Oswalt, "I think you need to quit. You're detrimental to this movie". And apparently, Goyer's response was "Why don't you quit? We've got all your close-ups and we could shoot the rest with your stand-in".
"And that freaked Wesley out so much that, for the rest of the production, he would only communicate with the director through Post-it notes. And he would sign each Post-it note 'From Blade'".
It's a fabulous interview at the The A.V. Club, that you can read here. Obviously, we've not heard Snipes' side of the story, but the final cut of the third Blade film tells a tale of its own.
Thanks to Comic Book Movie for the heads up.
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Whilst it clearly wasn't the best experience, in the full article doesn't make it sound *quite* so grim, nor Snipes quite such a dick. Obviously if you cherry-pick the 'juicy' bits without the context of Oswalt's good humour, it's going to sound bad. But yeah, sounds like a weird time was had by all.
Not forgetting, Snipes got royally screwed over by the director and the studio. Goyer changed the entire theme of the story, it was originally going to be set after 'man' had been wiped out completely, a sort of post-apocalyptic vampire infested world. Wasn't going to be cheap but it was moving forward. Then the studio offered Goyer the chance to direct if he altered the script and shot it cheaper. If I recall correctly, Snipes was contracted whatever they made and felt cheated that the focus was going to be moved from Blade to a bunch of Ipod carrying-kids with an aim to make a spin off. The plot was altered to focus on them and Snipes essentially got demoted. The first African-American with his own super hero franchise and it's sold from under him? I think he'd got a bit of a right to act like a dick. Perhaps not to the degree he did, but Trinity sort of signaled the end of his theatrical career to a large degree.
Trinity sort of signaled the end of his theatrical career to a large degree.
Well that and not paying his taxes.
I've learnt never to believe only one side of a story, especially in Hollywood and especially when the origin of the story (both interviewer and interviewee) have something to gain personally by publicising detrimental stories about other people.
Actually it wasn't David Goyer. It was the studio and the producers. Goyer wanted it to be a post apocalyptic vampire movie, but the studio said no, too expensive.
Snipes was actually one of the main producers. So if anyone screwed him over, it was himself. I
Goyer was directing the movie, even if it was a post apocalyptic Blade. All the hate that goes towards Goyer for saying he destroyed this movie, is wrong.
Perhaps, but the fact that Snipes launched a lawsuit regarding being producer yet also being locked out of any decision making process does point to there being issues. I know the whole production was a mess, they even tried to draft Vic Armstrong in to act as go-between for Snipes and Goyer, but he had other commitments. In his book he mentions he was glad to be out of the situation. Like I said, I'm not excusing his actions, he did act like a child, but you can understand why he was so annoyed with the situation.
best thing to come out of Blade Trinity... "Thundercunt"
Sorry, got to be pedantic ............... "cock-juggling thundercunt"
I really love the idea of Blade leaving passive aggressive post-it notes.. potentially in a house share with a group of Vampires, leading to awkward exchanges about who drank the blood left in the fridge.. is there any way to work this into the next series of Being Human?
Not too surprising. Will never forget the LA riots. CNN had a entertainment news show at the time. Blair Underwood came on and asked for peace and calm. Snipes came on and turned it into a promo for Snipes and how important he is to the world.
I heard that the iPod carrying kids (ha!) had their roles embiggened BECAUSE Snipes was refusing to come out of his trailer...
Could of sworn I heard this info already about five or six years ago...maybe it was in a Goyer interview. It also mentioned Snipes calling everyone on set 'cracker'.
But he comes on and goes, 'There’s only one other black guy in the movie, and you make him wear a shirt that says ‘Garbage?’ You racist mothefucker!' And he tried to strangle the director, David Goyer'."
Funniest thing I've read in ages!
I can believe it. There was a lot going one with Snipes at that time. It wasn't too much longer that just about every film he did was straight to DVD. It's kind of sad though because I think Snipes is a very talented actor.