Hi. I'm David Goyer, writer of the soon-to-be-released film
Blade: Trinity, the third film in the Blade series,
and I'm here today with the director of Blade: Trinity
David Goyer.
- Thanks for having me. - Thanks for coming.
So the script for Blade: Trinity...
I personally happen to think it's the best of the bunch,
but why did you choose to direct it?
The script was funny,
and it was different and I thought it was an opportunity to not do
what the audience would expect,
and one of the things that I thought was cool
about the first Blade film, the second Blade film
is they were very different.
They didn't just rehash the first film,
and it kind of turns the whole vampire mythology up on its end.
Okay, so I have a question for you now.
You know, unique weaponry has always been a staple of the Blade films.
How did you feel I handled the weaponry in this film?
Uh, well, you stuck to what was written on the page,
so that was a nice start.
Uh, actually, I was a big fan of what happened
with Abigail's U.V. arc.
I think that turned out to be a real crowd-pleaser.
It was very cool.
I like the sundogs, which were these sort of U.V. bullets.
I like the way that the ashings are different
when, you know, Hannibal King fires that gun.
I thought Wesley's chain knife at the beginning of the film
is a really cool addition. That was neat, too.
So, I wrote all three Blade films.
I know there were points during the production of the first two Blade films
where the directors wanted to curse me as a writer
because I had written things that were difficult to film.
But that never happened to you, right?
You know, it just happens,
and I know that there were times when Norrington and Guillermo
had to call, you know, you up and say,
"We gotta change what's on the page."
And, uh, you know, sometimes, it happens.
That's the difference between directing something and writing it.
Writing the screenplay... it's just the battle plan.
But as we all know, sometimes, the battle unfolds
in a way that's different from the way it was planned.
Okay, so in my mind, Wesley Snipes was always the definitive Blade.
He was the person that I had in mind when I wrote the first script.
But for the new film, as a director,
you've definitely made some interesting, sort of off-beat casting choices.
Can you tell me about those... Jessica Biel, Ryan Reynolds?
Parker Posey?
Look, as a director, I like to do things that people wouldn't expect,
and I like to cast people in roles that they wouldn't necessarily expect to see.
Uh, Ryan Reynolds was known primarily for comedy
and certainly, the character of Hannibal King is comedic
to a certain extent.
But he's also a really credible action figure,
and I knew Ryan could pull it off.
Jessica Biel, again, plays something different.
I mean, she's sort of the version of Linda Hamilton in T2 in this movie.
She's just a complete killing machine.
Parker Posey, again, not who you would expect
for this kind of film, but that's why I like it.
That's why I think it's different and exciting.
She's kind of the female equivalent of what Stephen Dorff was
in the first film.
You know, again, we didn't cast a Christopher Lee type as a vampire.
We went in a different direction,
and I just think it spices it up.
It's not what you would expect.
Now, I've noticed that you've been hanging out
on the official Blade: Trinity website on the message board.
Uh, what's it like mixing it up with the fans?
It's an interesting way to get their feedback.
And, uh, you know, the fans represent the core audience for films like this.
They're geeks just like me
when I was growing up, but I didn't have the Internet.
I couldn't connect with directors and writers and producers,
so it's just a fun way to have a dialogue.
All right, so there are all these rumors on the Internet
about whether or not there's gonna be a Blade 4 or a Nightstalkers film.
Now that you're a big hotshot director and you're in the know,
what can you tell us about that?
Are the rumors true? Can you dispel them?
You had to ask that question, didn't you?
Yeah, there are a lot of rumors flying around on the Net.
Uh, is there gonna be a Blade 4?
Is Blade gonna die?
Is Blade gonna turn evil?
Is there gonna be a Nightstalkers?
Is Blade gonna make a cameo in the Nightstalkers?
The truth is, any one of those scenarios could happen
and I'm certainly not gonna give any spoilers away.
That's a good point.
Okay, so in Blade: Trinity, we created the ultimate vampire Drake.
As a writer, how did you rise to that challenge?
How did you top yourself over the other two films?
It's difficult.
I mean, I remember being worried in the second film
what we were gonna do to kind of up the stakes
and then I thought, Oh, my God, now I've gotta do it for a third film
and up the stakes yet again.
But, you know, I knew we had to come up with something different
and it just seemed like we might as well go back to the well, go back to the source,
which meant the original Marvel Comics... Tomb of Dracula comics...
that Blade was a supporting character in,
and I just thought, who better to have Blade go up against than Dracula?
So one last thing.
I want to ask you about the ending.
Did you film the ending I wrote?
I shot what the writer wrote, and that's one version of what I shot.
But we also did some other versions,
and we're playing around with what we think works best,
and I can't guarantee that what the writer wrote in that case
will be what ends up in the film that's released in theaters,
although there will at least be a version of that on the DVD.
All right.
- Well, thanks a lot for joining me, David. - No problem.