Locke & Key Director Mark Tonderai Wants To Direct Marvel’s Blade Movie

Locke & Key director Mark Tonderai says he wants to helm Marvel’s upcoming Blade movie reboot. After making his debut in 1973, the vampire hunter Blade first became a major comic book character in the 1990s after appearing in the Nightstalkers series, which was followed by his own run of solo comics.

Given where comic book movies were aesthetically in the 1990s, it was actually something of a surprise when the Blade character was chosen to headline his own film, with Wesley Snipes taking on the lead role. But audiences enjoyed Blade’s dark and off-beat take on the comic book movie genre, and the film went on to gross $131 million while spawning a pair of sequels (one directed by future Oscar-winner Guillermo Del Toro) and a TV series. Now with comic book movies ruling the box office, Marvel is bringing the vampire hunter back to the big screen, with Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali taking over for Snipes as the titular Blade.

While the Blade movie is currently a go with Ali in the lead, the film has yet to announce a director. But given the enduring popularity of Blade as a character it’s no surprise that directors are happily throwing their hats in the ring for the chance to bring him back to the big screen, including John Wick helmer Chad Stahelski, who said back in August that he would like the gig. Another director has now added his own name to the mix, as Locke & Key helmer Tonderai says he thinks he’s the man for the job (via ComicBookMovie):

"I'd love to do Blade. Blade, for me, is right up my street in terms of my sensibilities. I also think Stephen Norrington did a brilliant job with the first incarnation of it, and I'd argue that it was the first, other than Tim Burton's Batman, superhero film that really revolutionized movies to where we are now. So, Blade, I would absolutely love to do."

Though Tonderai has mainly worked in TV, helming episodes of shows like Gotham, 12 Monkeys, Doctor Who and Castle Rock, he also does have some film credits with the horror movie Hush, the Jennifer Lawrence vehicle House at the End of the Street and the upcoming thriller Spell. Clearly Tonderai is familiar with adapting comic book-related material as his work on Locke & Key and Gotham shows, and he also has a strong background in horror, which would come in handy when it comes to dealing with the very dark material in Blade.

Though Tonderai clearly thinks he can handle the job of bringing Blade to life all over again, he’s not necessarily someone who would figure to see his name at the top of Marvel’s wish-list when it comes to finding a helmer for the project. Indeed, Stahelski sounds like someone who would be more likely to land the job, and in fact it would be intriguing to see what the John Wick mastermind would do with a character like Blade. Of course, Marvel has also been known to give big movies to relatively unknown directors, as they did when the Russo Brothers went from TV straight to Captain America: Winter Soldier (ultimately going on to become the main directors for the MCU). At the end of the day, Marvel will no doubt want a director for Blade who can nail a tone somewhere between the darkness of the source material and the relative lightness of the MCU, so the movie will be OK for general audiences while not losing hardcore fans who expect Blade to get violent and weird at times.

More: Why Wesley Snipes Has CGI Eyes In One Blade: Trinity Scene

Source: ComicBookMovie