Marvel Studios continues to snap up rising indie movie directors to helm its very major Marvel Cinematic Universe films. Reportedly, Mogul Mowgli director, Bassam Tariq, is in early talks to handle the in-development Blade The Vampire Slayer movie, which will star two-time Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali. Watchmen‘s Stacy Osei-Kuffour is writing, making her Marvel Studio’s first Black female writer.
Mogul Mowgli was Tariq’s first feature film, although he previously directed the documentary These Birds Walk, which followed the life of a homeless Pakistani boy. Bassam Tariq co-wrote Mogul Mowgli with Riz Ahmed who starred. The film received glowing reviews when it was released last year, sitting at a stellar 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Ali appeared at San Diego Comic-Con International at the tail end of Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios’ massive presentation which focused mainly on Phase 4. However, it was made clear that Blade would be part of Phase 5.
In the comics, Blade is half-human and half-vampire and uses his superhuman abilities to hunt down full-blooded vampires and other supernatural threats. He has been a member of the Midnight Sons and the Avengers.
Wesley Snipes starred as the slayer in the first live-action Blade movie which was released in 1998, at a time when comic book movies were a rarity. This R-rated, horror-tinged flick was also a far cry from the then-current campy Batman franchise which was dying at the hands of director Joel Schumacher.
Blade was so successful that it spawned two sequels. Rapper Kirk “Sticky Fingaz” Jones took over the role for Blade: The Series, which aired on the Spike cable network. Despite this essentially being Spike’s flagship series at the time, it was too expensive to produce and only lasted for one season of 13 episodes.
As stated, the new Blade, Mahershala Ali, is a two-time Academy Award winner. His first win came in 2017 for the film Moonlight. In 2019, he took home a second prize for the controversial Green Book. He has also earned BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild awards among other honors.
He has two past connections to Marvel, having starred as the crime boss Cornell ‘Cottonmouth’ Stokes on Netflix’s Luke Cage, which was created to be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe but has essentially been disavowed by Feige and Marvel Studios.
He also provided the voice for Uncle Aaron/The Prowler in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, but that is a Sony production, which Marvel Studios and parent company, Disney, were not involved with.
Among his other credits are House of Cards, True Detective, and Ramy.
Check back for updates on Blade as they arrive.
