KingsOfKings
𝔻𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕞 𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕥
Albert Hughes says he was in the running for the long-gestating Blade reboot, sharing why he walked away from the project.
The long-gestating Blade reboot, which has gone through multiple directors and writers during its troubled production, could have been directed by Albert Hughes.
Hughes is known for his acclaimed work as a co-director alongside his twin brother, Allen Hughes, on notable films like Menace II Society, From Hell, and The Book of Eli. Per ComicBookMovie, Hughes appeared as a guest on the newest episode of Josh Horowitz's Happy Sad Confused podcast and addressed his near-involvement with the upcoming Blade film. He said that while Marvel Studios was "very nice" during their talks, he grew increasingly uncomfortable when he realized that the job would come with giving up too much creative control. Hughes said that led him to backing away from the project, as he knew it would make him "implode."
“I’ve been in talks with the obvious studio about superhero movies a couple of times, but I always felt uncomfortable because I knew it was a system,” Hughes explained. "And they’re very nice, and I went through a long process. In fact, I broke down all their movies and put them in a spreadsheet and broke down the box office, watching the title scores, where the VFX ranks, I had to do a deep dive on them.”
Albert Hughes Said "I'm Not Here for This"
He added, “I got, halfway, not very close, halfway through the process, and I go, ‘No, I would implode from the kind of controlled nature of that world and not being able to do what I do.’ And I don’t understand why a real filmmaker would want to be in that system. I understand why up-and-comers would, which they do a good job of finding people at the right time. But I think I would implode... So if you’re getting hired for you, and what you do and what you bring, I’ve been in a situation more recently where I’m getting poked and prodded, and it’s like, ‘Oh, you don’t really want what I do.' That was checking a box for them, and this is not going to work out. And it didn’t work out; I had to quit that job. I smelled it pretty early, and I said, ‘No, I’m not here for this.’
The Blade reboot has had trouble keeping a director locked down. Following multiple delays and reports of lead star Mahershala Ali nearly exiting the project over screenplay frustrations, it was recently reported that Logan co-writer Michael Green boarded the project to work on a new draft on a scaled-back budget of less than $100 million. While it remains to be seen if there will be another change to the film's release schedule, it is currently slated to hit theaters on Feb. 14, 2025.
