Pre-production of Marvel's 'Blade' shut down due to writers' strike

Los Angeles: Marvel has halted pre-production on the superhero reboot, which will feature Mahershala Ali as the titular vampire hunter with Aaron Pierre, Delroy Lindo, and Mia Goth, because of the ongoing writers' strike.

For an anticipated September 6, 2024 release, Atlanta-based production was planned to begin within the month. At San Diego Comic-Con in 2019, Marvel Studios initially revealed it was bringing back "Blade" after Wesley Snipes created the character in a feature picture trilogy from 1998 to 2004.

This isn't the first time Disney has had to delay production on the film. Last October, Disney pushed 'Blade' from a 2023 release to 2024 after the original director, Bassam Tariq ('Mogul Mowgli'), left the project two months before filming was set to begin.

In November, Yann Demange ('Lovecraft Country') took over directing duties from a script by Michael Starrbury's 'When They See Us'. In April, just weeks before the WGA contract deadline, Nic Pizzolatto ('True Detective') joined the production, re-writing from Starrbury's screenplay. He ran out of time to complete his work before the strike began.

'Blade' will start again once the strike has concluded, though that timing may be further complicated by looming labour talks with SAG-AFTRA and the DGA this summer.

Pre-production on another 2024 Marvel release, 'Thunderbolts', has not been affected by the strike, and the studio has several other projects in various stages of production, including 2024 features 'Captain America: New World Order' and 'Deadpool 3" and the upcoming Disney+ series 'Agatha: Coven of Chaos', 'Daredevil: Born Again' and 'Wonder Man'.

With inputs from IANS