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Blade Director Bassam Tariq Defends Kevin Feige After Marvel Shelved 1920s Vampire Film
ReBlade Director Bassam Tariq Defends Kevin Feige After Marvel Shelved 1920s Vampire Film
Bassam Tariq, the first director attached to Marvel's canceled Blade movie starring Mahershala Ali, says he felt like a failure after leaving the project but does not blame Kevin Feige, calling the Marvel Studios president a «good dude» who had too much on his plate.
Bassam Tariq, the filmmaker who was the first director officially attached to Marvel Studios' long-gestating Blade movie, has spoken out about the project's collapse and offered a pointed defense of Marvel president Kevin Feige. In an interview with Vulture, Tariq said he felt like a failure after exiting the film, but he does not hold Feige responsible for how the production unraveled.
The Blade reboot, which would have starred Mahershala Ali as the daywalking vampire hunter, was announced in 2019 and was finally canceled in July. Tariq described the experience of leaving the project as disorienting. «I didn't know which way north was,» he said, adding that he had to disconnect from everyone afterward to find himself again. «When you're doing it at that level, and it doesn't work out, you're like, 'S**t, I feel like a failure, because I couldn't do the thing that I wanted to do well.'»
Tariq said his wife, his children, and the Atlanta Muslim community helped him regain his footing. He noted that people in his community knew him as the guy directing Blade, and he feared they would constantly ask about the film. Instead, they moved on and never brought it up, which he called great.
The director's departure came about because, as he put it, «they wouldn't let me write the script, and life's too short to make really disastrous things.» Even so, he offered new details about the version of Blade he had been developing. He said the abandoned sets in New Orleans were «incredibly designed» and «beautiful,» and that the 1920s-set vampire movie would have featured an elaborate horse chase beginning in a speakeasy where Blade would act drunk.
Despite those striking visual ideas, Tariq said the Marvel crew «didn't have all the pieces to really get it together, to be what it needed to be.» He singled out production designer Stefania Cella and her team, calling the loss of their work the most heartbreaking part of the cancellation. He also praised the writers, saying they were working very hard, and suggested the problem was not a lack of effort but a lack of a finished script.
Feige has faced criticism since Blade was shelved, including some he brought on himself. Weeks before the cancellation, he called himself a «gigantic loser and failure» over the film's failure to launch, and Ali later agreed with that assessment. Tariq, however, rejected the pile-on against the Marvel executive. «I want to be clear: I like Kevin,» he said. «I'd love to talk to him if he sees it. He's a good dude. I really dislike all this s**t about like, 'Marvel fumbled this. F**k Kevin Feige.' No, man. He's got a lot on his plate, too much.»
Tariq described Feige as adaptable, saying he «listens and f**king changes.» He pointed to Spider-Man: Brand New Day as evidence that Marvel Studios adjusts its approach to keep delivering spectacle while building story along the way. He called the sprawling Marvel Cinematic Universe Feige's world, «and rightfully so,» noting that Feige has made incredible films and massive amounts of money for Disney.
Comparing their track records, Tariq said it made perfect sense that the final word would go to Feige. He noted that he had made Mogul Mowgli on a $1.2 million budget, while the Blade set alone was the equivalent of about ten such films. «We just never really had a script,» he said.
Tariq also acknowledged the difficulty of competing with Wesley Snipes' iconic Blade, calling the original superhero movie a massive undertaking that affected many people. His new film, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, is out now and stars Ali in the lead role. Ali has said he remains thankful for the free year of training the Blade project gave him for that movie. As for Tariq, he hopes Feige finds time to see what he is capable of as a filmmaker.
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