Blade II Production

Following the success of the original film, New Line and Marvel made plans to make a sequel back in 1999. It is said that the film was going to introduce Hannibal King and Frank Drake in the sequel as well as a time travel storyline where Blade goes years in the future.

Guillermo del Toro was hired to direct Blade II by New Line production president Michael De Luca. Tippett Studio provided computer-generated visual effects, including digital doubles of some of the characters after Stephen Norrington turned down the offer to direct the sequel.

Goyer and Frankfurt both admired director Guillermo del Toro and believed his dark sensibilities to be ideal for Blade II. Frankfurt first met del Toro when Frankfurt's design company, Imaginary Forces, did the title sequences for Mimic. "I admired Mimic and got to know Guillermo through that film," says Frankfurt.

"Both David Goyer and I have been fans of his since Cronos and were enthusiastic about him coming on board. Guillermo is such a visual director and has a very strong sense of how he wants a movie to look. When you sign on with someone like Guillermo you're not going to tell him what the movie should look like, you're going to let him run with it."

Like Goyer, del Toro has a passion for comic books. "Guillermo was weaned on comic books, as was I," says Goyer. "I was a huge comic book collector... my brother and I had about twelve thousand comic books that we assembled when we were kids, so I know my background."

Del Toro chose not to alter the script too much from the ideas created by Goyer and Snipes. "I wanted the movie to have a feeling of both a comic book and Japanese animation," said the director.

"I resurrected those sources and viewed them again. I dissected most of the dailies from the first movie; I literally grabbed about four boxes of tapes and one by one saw every single tape from beginning to end until I perfectly understood where the language of the first film came from. I studied the style of the first one and I think Norrington used a tremendous narrative style. His work is very elegant."

Stepping back into Blade's shoes was a challenge Wesley Snipes relished. "I love playing this role. It's fun as an actor to test your skills at doing a sequel, to see if you can recreate something that you did," Snipes says.

Peter Frankfurt adds, "Wesley is Blade; so much of the character was invented by Wesley and his instincts are so spot on. He takes his fighting, his weapons and attitude very seriously. He's incredibly focused, but he's also very cool and fun."

"Wesley knows Blade better than David Goyer, better than me, better than anyone else involved in the franchise," adds del Toro. "He instinctively knows what the character would and wouldn't do, and every time he twists something around, something better would come out."

Filming took place in Prague, Czech Republic including the Barrandov Studios,as well as London England from 12 March 2001 and concluded on the 2nd July 2001.

Blade II Soundtrack

Blade II: The Soundtrack is the soundtrack to the film, Blade II. It was released on March 19, 2002 through Immortal Records and Virgin Records, and featured collaborations between hip hop artists and electronic artists.

This was similar to other releases from Immortal Records such as the soundtracks for the films Judgment Night which featured collaborations between rock and hip-hop performers, and on the soundtrack for the film adaptation for Spawn which featured collaborations between rock and electronic artists. This soundtrack appeared on four different Billboard charts.

Blade II Release

Blade II was released on March 22, 2002. This was during a period of the year (months March and April) considered to be a bad time for sequels to be released. Despite this, the film became the most successful film of the Blade series, making $80 million in the United States and $150 million worldwide.

In its opening weekend, the film earned $32,528,016 from 2,707 theaters but dropped 59% of its earnings in its second week, which brought in $13.2 million. The intake is believed to be affected in part by the pull of NCAA basketball Final Four games.

The film debuted in the United Kingdom at number one, making $3.6 million from 355 theatres and held the spot for the following week, where it had earned $7.9 million, despite a 47% decline. The film was also number one in Singapore, making $214,000 from 30 theatres.

Reaction to Blade II among critics has been mixed to positive. The film earned a 59% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert gave the film 3� stars out of 4, stating: "Blade II is a really rather brilliant vomitorium of viscera, a comic book with dreams of becoming a textbook for mad surgeons."

Conversely, James Berardinelli gave the film 2� stars out of 4, stating: "Blade II is for those undiscriminating movie-goers who want nothing more from a trip to the multiplex than loud, raucous, mindless entertainment."

The New Line Platinum Series DVD contains several deleted scenes, including a flashback sequence showing Blade's first meeting with Whistler. A Blu-ray version was released in 2012. A video game of the same name and based on the movie, was released for PS2 and Xbox on September 3, 2002.

Blade Trinity Production

David S. Goyer had originally planned for the film to be set 20 years after the events of the second movie where the vampires finally had achieved world domination and enslaved all humans, with Blade being the last hope for humanity.

Blade's slower aging could be explained by his vampire blood. The storyline was deemed too dark and was later dropped. Colin Farrell was offered the role of Hannibal King, but turned it down. Ashley Scott was considered for the role of Abigail Whistler.

Originally, Blade was to have an on-screen sex scene in this film, since neither Blade II nor Blade included such a scene. Both Wesley Snipes and Goyer stated this on the Blade II DVD commentary. For unknown reasons, the planned sex scene was scrapped altogether. The sex scene was going to be with Abigail.

The film's opening chase scene was originally scripted for its predecessor (Blade II), but was scrapped due to budget concerns. The director wanted to include the scene, regardless of how much it was to cost.

Resources:
IMDB.com, Wikipedia.org

BLADE TRILOGY - Complete Story and Screenshots

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CHAPTER THREE: BLADE TRINITY

Prologue: Four fully-covered vampires walk into a stone ziggurat in the Syrian Desert of Iraq. They are looking to re-awaken Dracula. They find him. Only three vampires walk out.

Six months later. Blade has slipped up. After killing 1,182 human familiars and countless vampires, he's killed an innocent human. Shot him through the heart with a silver stake, but he didn't ash. It was a set up, staged just to get Blade caught and out of the vampire hunting business.

FBI agents Ray Cumberland and Wilson Hale have positively identified Blade, thanks to a video by an anonymous citizen. That "anonymous citizen" is actually Danica Talos, one of the four vampires who freed Dracula, or "Drake" as he now calls himself.

The FBI has cornered Blade and Whistler in their warehouse laboratory, but Whistler is not about to let their operation fall into the hands of the FBI (aware that the FBI is loaded with human familiars as well as a vampire agent or two. After yelling at Blade to get out of the building, Whistler blows it up, destroying everything--computers, weaponry, and himself.

Blade is devastated by Whistler's death and he is easily captured. Blade is taken to the police department where he is being poked and prodded by the FBI, who consider him public enemy number one, and by forensic psychiatrist, Doctor Edgar Vance, who has pronounced Blade psychotic and wants to transfer him to County Psychiatric.

Police chief Martin Vreede pulls jurisdiction and refuses to release Blade to either of them. While they argue over who should have custody of Blade, Vance shoots him full of tranquilizers. Even in his weakened state, Blade has already figured out that Vance is working for the vampires.

Then, Danica Talos and several other vampires, including her brother Asher and strongman Jarko Grimwood, posing as a transfer team, arrive to move Blade, but Danica can't hide her vampirism from Blade. Unfortunately, Blade is too knocked out to resist. "You're all alone, Blade", Danica taunts. "No one's going to help you now."

There are some new vampire hunters in town, among them none other than Whistler's illegitimate daughter Abigail and the wise-cracking ex-vampire Hannibal King, Danica's ex-pet. They come to Blade's rescue, overpowering Danica and her henchmen while Blade doses himself with serum through a new effervescent inhaler (no needles needed).

When Blade's strength has returned, he, King, and Abby break out of the police station, taking out a bunch of vampires along the way. But they're not clear yet. As they exit the building, a dozen police cars drive up, surrounding them. Suddenly, an old van speeds up. King and Abby jump in, with Blade right behind them, and the van speeds away.

They drive to Abby and King's "Honeycomb Hideout" where Blade meets the rest of the Nightstalkers, as they refer to themselves. Besides King and Abby, there is van driver Dex, weaponry designer Hedges, blind scientist Sommerfield, and Sommerfield's young daughter Zoe.

Although he is informed that it was Sommerfield who fashioned his new serum inhaler and that Whistler wanted Blade to work with the Nightstalkers, Blade is not impressed by them. In his eyes, they are kids...rookies, not to mention that Abby Whistler fights with her MP3 earplugs stuck in her ears.

The Nightstalkers inform Blade that Dracula has been reawakened by the vampires in order to help with the vampire final solution, but they don't know what the final solution is. They do know, however, that they're going to need a new weapon, something bigger than silver nitrate bullets and garlic spray.

Sommerfield is working on a biological weapon that she calls "DayStar," a virus that specifically targets vampires. Unfortunately, the virus' lethality is spotty. They need better DNA to work with. They need Dracula's blood because it's still pure, unaffected by generations of mutation. How to get to Drake? Blade's idea is to go for the weakest link...the familiars.

"Bleed the wannabees and they'll take us to the real", he says. So they take out a bunch of familiars. One of them gets a call on his cell phone as Blade is dangling him off the side of a bridge. Turns out to be Dr Vance, so they break into Vance's office to interrogate him.

As they round the desk to directly approach Vance, they see the real Vance lying dead on the floor and realize that the "Vance" standing before them is actually Drake. Drake grabs King, stabs him, then jumps out the window, falling maybe 15 stories to the pavement below, landing feet first on a car roof, then running off parkour-style. Blade follows.

They meet up again on the rooftops. Drake has carried a human infant he grabbed along the way and threatens to drop it some dozen or more stories to the pavement below. After slinging a few insults and threats back and forth, Drake tosses the baby in the air. Blade catches the baby, but Drake gets away.

While Abby stops the hemorrhaging in King's wound with an elastic protein, Sommerfield reveals that she has located the vampire's laboratory at Biomedical Enterprises. She also downloaded a copy of their recent purchases, like polymerase, bone marrow growth supplement, and genetic sequencing enzymes, so Blade and Abby decide to go snooping.

While lurking outside, they see Chief Vreede drive up. A vampire comes out to meet him, and Blade and Abby pounce. After destroying the vampire, they force Vreede to take them inside the building. The first thing they see after turning on the lights is a huge warehouse filled with humans in stasis, all wired up as continuous blood donors.

It's the vampire's final solution, Vreede explains. Instead of hunting blood on a piecemeal basis, the vampires have created a blood-farming facility. Blade shoots Vreede and forces the computer technician to shut down the facility.

Back at Honeycomb Hideout, Dex and Hedges are playing basketball, Sommerfield is reading a bedtime story to Zoe, and King is napping in the infirmary. Suddenly, Abraham Whistler appears to King. "Dude, you're dead", says King. It's not Whistler...it's Drake. When Blade and Abby return, they find Hedges, Dex, and Sommerfield dead. King and Zoe are missing.

Drake has taken them back to the vampire's lair where King is now chained to the floor. He regains consciousness to stare eye-to-eye with a pomeranian. Suddenly the dog's lower jaw opens reaper-style. King manages to roll away just in time. Danica, Jarko, and Asher enter and take a few swipes at King.

Then Danica asks King about the weapon that Blade is planning, but King refuses to talk so Danica threatens to turn him into a vampire again and wait until the thirst builds. Then... (door opens and in walk Drake and Zoe); "I'm going to bring the little girl in here for you" to feed on, Danica whispers into King's ear.

Fortunately, Sommerfield managed to get off a message to another Nightstalker named Caulder. Just before she was killed, Caulder tells them, Sommerfield developed a workable strain of the DayStar virus, and she transmitted the genetic sequence to him. It will need to be injected into Drake. If it is, it will mix with his blood and should kill every vampire in the area.

However, Caulder adds, Sommerfield doesn't know whether it will kill Blade, too. Caulder has fashioned a projectile containing the DayStar virus. Abby loads it on one of the arrows to her compound bow. Now it's nightstalking time. They have traced King's whereabouts by the tracking node implanted in his body.

First, they pump atomized colloidal silver into the vampires' air conditioning system, which makes it difficult for the vampires to breathe. Then, Blade drops down through the skylight. While Blade takes on the vampires, Abby drops in and releases King. Then Abby pops in her MP3 earphones, and she and Blade take out a few dozen more vampires.

King is chased by the vampire pomeranian and two vampire rottweilers, but he tricks them into leaping out a window. Abby rescues Zoe. While King and Jarko go at each other with fists, Blade and Drake use swords. Abby takes out more vampires with her bow. King takes out Jarko, but Danica takes Jarko's place and she also dies.

Drake has had enough of Blade and transforms into his monster self, complete with Reaper maw. Just when Drake is about to cream Blade, Abby shows up, loads the DayStar serum into her bow, and shoots it towards the back of Drake's head. Drake manages to catch the arrow before impact and tosses it on the floor, but Blade retrieves it and shoves the needle into Drake's chest.

DayStar is released, dispersing the virus through the air, and the rest of the vampires start falling. When it's all over, Drake has become human again. Just before he dies, he compliments Blade on beginning a new race of vampires and reminds him that the thirst always wins. Suddenly, dozens of FBI agents swarm into the building, only to find everything smashed to smithereens but no bodies other than Blade's.

They transport him to the hospital and prepare to perform an autopsy. Just as they're about to make the first cut, Blade's body transforms into that of Drake. It was Drake's gift to Blade, knowing that Blade is the best hope for the vampire race of the future. Blade is still out there. The film ends with Blade heading into the city streets on a motorcycle.