Blade awaits as Marvel deepens its search for a director – The Hollywood Reporter

Marvel Studios will take some extra time to sharpen it code Featured project.

In the wake of parting ways with the director Bassam Tariq Two weeks ago, the studio paused the action-adventure vampire thriller slated to star Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali. Marvel is temporarily closing production-related activities in Atlanta, where the project was due to begin in November, while it conducts research on a filmmaker and is developing the feature.

Crew members were notified Tuesday, according to a source.

The studio hopes to restart production in early 2023. After this story was published, Disney Pay code From November 3, 2023, release date until September 6, 2024 – one of many changes due to film delays.

code Its debut production saw a turnaround at least twice as it underwent several rounds of script rewriting. Beau DeMayo, who has worked on shows like Star Trek: Strange New WorldsAnd the the magician And its own animation feature, as well as a special Marvel feature moon knightis the current author.

When Tarek left the project, many assumed that the director would run quickly so that the production wouldn’t waste too much time. But in the next two weeks, it became clear that Marvel wanted to slow and deepen the search. On the same occasion, the studio thought it should take time to incorporate other aspects of the feature project.

“They really want to get it right,” says one source.

code It was one of Marvel’s most anticipated films since the studio announced the project to great fanfare at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019. At the end of the Marvel panel, Ali appeared by surprise and donned a Blade logo baseball cap. Kevin Feige, President of Marvel Studios later told THR owned by me Call him personally To express interest in playing the character.

Blade was created by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Gene Colan in 1973 Dracula’s grave No. 10. He is half human, half immortal who hunts down vampires in order to avenge his mother, who was killed by a vampire during his birth. Wesley Snipes previously played the character in a trilogy released in the early 2000s.

October 11, 11:51 AM Updated with codeNew release date.