Trivia / Blade (1998)

• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • It was Wesley Snipes' idea that the entrance to Pearl's lair be through a walk-in freezer.
  • Snipes described Deacon Frost as the kind of guy who'd iceskate uphill. Stephen Norrington and David S. Goyer loved the phrase so much that they worked it into the dialogue.
• California Doubling: Set in New Orleans (according to the script) but shot in Vancouver and Los Angeles.
• Completely Different Title:
  • Greece: Dark Force
  • Turkey: Two Sides of the Blade
• Deleted Role: Stan Lee originally had a cameo that was ultimately cut from the film. He played one of the cops that come in to the blood club during the aftermath and discover Quinn's body on fire.
• Edited for Syndication: When shown on broadcast TV, the scenes of the panty-flashing Japanese schoolgirls in the club is often cut or altered to hide them.
• Focus Group Ending: The original ending had Deacon Frost turn into an Eldritch Abomination made from blood but the test audiences found him hard to relate to and they couldn't get the special effects right.
• Follow the Leader: The success of this movie led to the later boom of Marvel Comics movies and willingness to use more obscure characters. Blade was the first Marvel movie to be a financial success, proving that Marvel characters could headline movies and turn a profit. Additionally, Blade himself was not as well-known prior to the movie's release, but still made for a successful property.
• Hostility on the Set: According to Wesley Snipes and Stephen Dorff on the DVD Commentary, there was a slight clash between them while filming the hostage scene where Blade and Frost first meet in person. It was Dorff's first day, and while he was trying to establish Frost's motivation, approach, etc. Snipes became impatient and tried to counsel Dorff. Dorff became incredibly frustrated and said he felt overwhelmed since David Fincher and other notable filmmakers visited during filming and added further tension to the frantic on-set nature, forcing Snipes to assert his producer authority and make decisions. Snipes would tell Dorff that it was essential to trust in him, not only as the starring lead but also as producer. Snipes goes on in the commentary to say: "For a while... there wasn't that trust."
• Mid-Development Genre Shift: It is alleged that at one point, New Line Cinema considered making the film into an action comedy horror film. But David S Goyer convince New Line to nix the idea.
• Produced by Cast Member: Wesley Snipes produced the film in addition to playing the title character.
• Real-Life Relative: In the Japanese dub used by TV Tokyo, Whister and Blade's voice actors (Chikao Ohtsuka and Akio Ōtsuka respectively) were father and son in Real Life.
• Saved from Development Hell: When New World Pictures bought the rights to Marvel Comics, they were set to make a Mexico-set western starring Richard Roundtree as Blade. Marvel Studios started to develop the film as early as 1992, when LL Cool J was interested in playing Blade. Wesley Snipes was cast in 1996.
• Wag the Director: Karen was originally going to be played by a white actress, Wesley Snipes encouraged them to cast a black actress.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Laurence Fishburne and Denzel Washington were considered for the part of Eric Brooks before Wesley Snipes was cast. Fishburne would later go on to play Silver Surfer and Bill Foster in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and Ant-Man and the Wasp respectively.
  • Jet Li was offered the role of Deacon Frost before the casting of Stephen Dorff, but turned it down in order to star in Lethal Weapon 4.
    • Bruce Payne, Skeet Ulrich and Mark Wahlberg were considered for Deacon Frost as well before the casting of Dorff.
  • Stephen Norrington originally wanted Patrick McGoohan to play Abraham Whistler, as he was a fan of The Prisoner (1967). Jon Voight was also considered.
  • David Fincher was originally chosen to direct the movie before Stephen Norrington was hired. However, Fincher departed the project due to undisclosed reasons.
  • The Prodigy were approached to do the score and soundtrack for the film, but they turned down the offer due to other work commitments
  • Michael Morbius was planned to be used as the main antagonist in a eventual sequel, but the idea was dropped out due to the fact the character's rights belong to Spider-Man universe, and their movie license were property of Sony at the time. The vampire at the rooftop in the alternate ending of the movie is Morbius.
  • Quinn originally had a much smaller role, but Donal Logue was so funny onset that his character was expanded and he was allowed to ad-lib a good portion of his dialogue.
  • The script for the first film revealed that Blade's sword was originally Whistler's, and was handed down from vampire hunter to vampire hunter. It is also implied the original wielder used the sword to kill La Magra.
  • The original plan would have had Blade failing to save the world and battling a vampire apocalypse in the sequel. The third film would then be based on I Am Legend.
  • When Karen Jensen wakes up at Blade's hideout after her attack and rescue by Blade, the script had her discover a jar with a vampire baby in it. The baby would be alive and used by Blade and Whistler as a guinea pig for testing out weapons to fight vampires. The studio however found the concept to be disturbing and refused to allow it.
  • The scene where Karen and Deacon are talking about the cure for vampirism initially ran a bit longer and answered the question of how the vampires would feed if everybody was turned into a vampire. They would keep some humans alive in giant blood bags to harvest them. The bags can still be seen in a doorway during the scene, and later played an integral part of the plot in Blade: Trinity.
  • Pearl was originally designed as an androgynous Japanese man.
• Word of God: According to Stephen Norrington, the cause of Pearl's obese size was the creature gaining a cannibalistic lust for infants and children as he loves to eat their hearts.

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