Unveiling the Unseen: David Fincher's Unfulfilled Vision for the Epic Blade Movie
David S Goyer reveals David Fincher's unrealized vision for the Blade movie, shedding light on Warner Bros' pursuit of competing with the MCU and their previous collaborations
During a conversation on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, screenwriter David S. Goyer (known for his work on Man of Steel) revealed intriguing insights about a potential Blade film directed by David Fincher that never made it to production, but was very close to becoming a reality.
According to Goyer, "I collaborated with Fincher on a draft of Blade even before he directed Se7en. It was around the time he had just finished working on Alien 3 and was potentially developing Se7en. Together, we worked on this draft. I distinctly recall visiting our producers' office, where I was met with a remarkable sight. Fincher had laid out numerous books filled with captivating photography and art, each adorned with Post-It notes. He pointed to them and simply said, 'This is the movie.'"
"[Fincher] immersed us in a captivating exploration of the scene's aesthetics and character dynamics for two hours. It was a groundbreaking experience for me, and it greatly influenced my subsequent revisions," revealed Goyer. While Fincher eventually moved on to direct Se7en, Stephen Norrington took the helm for the first Blade film.Scheduled for release on February 14, 2025, as part of Phase Five, the MCU is preparing to launch a Blade reboot. Mahershala Ali will assume the titular role. However, the film's pre-production was temporarily halted earlier this year due to the ongoing writers' strike.
In other parts of the interview, Goyer provided insight into the challenging development situation at Warner Bros., revealing the studio's ambitious plans for a cinematic universe and the unfortunate missed chance for a standalone Superman sequel featuring Henry Cavill.
"We were under immense pressure from Warner Bros.," Goyer disclosed. "They were pushing for their own MCU, constantly saying, 'We need our MCU!' But I believed it was important to take things step by step."
Some of the challenges were attributed to the frequent changes in top-level executives at Warner Bros. and DC. Goyer mentioned how every 18 months, a new person would come in, causing constant changes and uncertainty. Each new executive would come in with grand plans, stating that they wanted to go bigger. Furthermore, Warner Bros. once proposed an ambitious slate of films for the next decade, even though none of them had scripts. Goyer found it perplexing that so much planning was being done without a solid foundation. He compared it to constructing a house without any proper groundwork.
The collaboration between Goyer and Christopher Nolan resulted in the creation of the movie "Man of Steel" in 2013. However, despite the success of this film, there were no plans for another standalone Superman film for Henry Cavill. Instead, Cavill's character was involved in projects aimed at expanding the DC universe, such as "Batman v Superman" and "Justice League."
