Feature: Blade: Trinity

Writer/director David Goyer and actors Wesley Snipes and Jessica Biel tell why Blade: Trinity is the most explosive yet!

Having written and produced the first two films in the Blade series, writer/director David Goyer was the perfect choice to direct the third and final installment. “I hope this is the last film in the series,” he admits, “but if Blade: Trinity makes a billion dollars, I think it’s safe to assume that there’ll be a Blade 4 which I would do because I love the character so much.” The film-maker prepared himself for this project by directing the 2001 drama ZigZag which starred none other than Blade himself, Wesley Snipes. “That film cost two million dollars and Blade: Trinity has a budget of 70 million dollars so they’re two different worlds! I want Blade: Trinity to be heavy on action because I didn’t think the first two films had enough. If this was going to be the last film, I wanted it to have lots of car chases, which is how the film begins.”

Blade: Trinity features Blade having to confront the biggest, meanest vampire of them all – Dracula. Just don’t call him that, says Goyer! “He’s called Drake in the film because you really can’t compare our Dracula monster with Bram Stoker’s,” he explains. “Dracula is just a part of him – Drake represents the origin of pure evil, all kinds of monsters throughout history. But he also has pure vampire blood and the vampires want his blood, his DNA, because it will help them become Daywalkers. Blade and the rest of the vampire hunters want to use Drake’s DNA to create a killer vampire virus.”

Snipes’s Blade character is now trapped in a world where vampires are slowly but surely ingratiating themselves into mainstream society, turning Blade into an outcast and wanted fugitive. When a shootout occurs at the headquarters of Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), Blade finds himself on the run and alone, until he meets a group of vampire hunters who call themselves Nightstalkers. “We blow Whistler’s factory to pieces and we almost killed Wesley’s stuntman in the process,” says Goyer. “The Trinity in the title – and I was nervous about calling the film Trinity because of the negative reaction to the Matrix sequels – refers to the teaming of Blade with Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds) and Abigail Whistler (Jessica Biel) who’s Whistler’s daughter. They make a great team because Hannibal’s always joking with Blade, and Blade doesn’t entirely trust them, and then there’s Abigail who’s been estranged from her father. She uses a crossbow in the film and Jessica herself learned to use it for real. Jessica and Ryan both trained for months to get in shape for the film.”

by David Grove

Get all the interviews in
Film Review (Nov)

Photo © New Line Cinema
Feature © Visual Imagination 2004. Not for reproduction

Taken from

Film Review (Nov)
#650, November 2004
ships from Oct 7 2004
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