The Hollywood Reporterrecently broke the news that director Bassam Tariq has dropped out of the MCU’sBladereboot. In an official statement, Marvel Studios said, “Due to continued shifts in our production schedule, Bassam is no longer moving forward as director ofBlade, but will remain an executive producer on the film. We appreciate Bassam’s talent and all the work he’s done gettingBladeto where it is.” With the shoot date getting closer and closer, the search is on to find a filmmaker to replace Tariq in the director’s chair. From Jordan Peele to John Carpenter, there are a number of acclaimed directors who could bring Mahershala Ali’s vampire hunter to the big screen.
S. Craig Zahler’s Brutality Is Unparalleled
With his deeply hard-hitting action movies, director S. Craig Zahler has thrilled and disturbed his audience in equal measure.Bone Tomahawkcombines western tropes with grisly, gory horror.Brawl in Cell Block 99isa deceptively simplistic prison noirwith brutal fight scenes.Dragged Across Concreteis a no-nonsense police thriller with unsympathetic antiheroes and uncompromising bloodshed.
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Zahler is always pushing the boundaries of on-screen violence. InBone Tomahawk, a man is skinned alive by a cannibal. InBrawl in Cell Block 99, a prisoner’s face is scraped off their skull on the grimy floor of a jail cell. InDragged Across Concrete, a bank teller is blown apart by a shotgun in a heist gone awry. IfMarvel Studios is willing to go into hard-R territorywith itsBladereboot, Zahler is the perfect director to get the most bang for its R-rated buck.
Ana Lily Amirpour Directed One Of The Greatest Vampire Movies Ever Made
Much like Blade, the eponymous antihero in Ana Lily Amirpour’s horror masterpieceA Girl Walks Home Alone at Nightis a vampire who uses her vampiric superpowers to fight crime. Being undead gives “The Girl” a kind of agency that is rarely afforded to women in the horror genre. With its moody visuals, its desolate setting, and its lone-wolf antihero exacting vigilante justice,A Girl Walks Home Alone at Nightwas advertised as “the first Iranian vampire western.”
Bladewill be a similar plate-spinning act of multiple genres. It’s a superhero movie, a horror movie, an action movie, and it still needs to find time for an emotional throughline and be anchored by a palpable atmosphere. Amirpour’s breakout movie managed to hold together a vampire vigilante story, a touching love story, and a dystopian sci-fi story with a resolute directorial vision. She’d be perfect for theBladereboot.
Gareth Evans’ Blood-Soaked Action Scenes Border On Horror
Gareth Evans burst onto the scene with the stunning self-contained action ofThe Raid, then managed to top himself with the mega-scale gangland warfare storyline of the bigger, bolder, and even better sequel. Evans has made his last couple of films for Netflix, but it’s about time his uniquely jaw-dropping action sequences returned to theaters.
WithThe Raidfilms, Evans pioneered a new action subgenre with violence that’s so intense, relentless, and unapologetically bloody that it wouldn’t be out of place in a horror movie. This is exactly the kind of cinematic sensibility thatBlade’s vampire-slaying adventuresneed to shine.
Jordan Peele Blends Genre Thrills With Social Commentary
After Jordan Peele’s sketch show made him one of the most acclaimed comedians in the world,his directorial debutGet Outmade him one of the most acclaimed horror filmmakers in the world. Peele’s signature style is to combine a genre trope like evil doppelgängers or aStepford Wives-esque suburban cult with a very real fear like racial prejudice or the use of exploitation for entertainment.
In his most recent movie,sci-fi thrillerNope, Peele deftly handled big-budget spectacle without losing sight of the suspense-building cinematic tricks that made his lower-budget early films so engaging. After the new master of horror expanded his reach with a Spielbergian UFO epic and stuck the landing, the logical next step is a Marvel vampire movie.
John Carpenter Is Ready To End His Filmmaking Hiatus
In a recent interview with thePittsburgh Post-Gazetteto promoteHalloween Ends, John Carpenter hinted that he’s ready to end his filmmaking hiatus and get back in the director’s chair. This is great news for horror fans, because Carpenter is a true legend of the genre. He hasn’t directed a movie sinceThe Wardway back in 2010, but his decades-long filmography contains some of the greatest horror movies ever made (and a couple of the greatest action movies ever made).
He defined the slasher subgenre withHalloween,caused many sleepless nights withThe Thing, and combined anti-capitalist satire with alien ass-kicking inThey Live. The visceral thrills ofEscape from New YorkandAssault on Precinct 13would combine with the supernatural terror ofThe Fogto create the perfectBlademovie.
