More info on "Blade" TV series

[phantomstranger]

12:00 AM, 13-JANUARY-06
Goyer: TV Will Open Blade Up
David S. Goyer, the writer behind the Blade movies, told reporters that his upcoming Blade telefilm for Spike TV will open up the world of vampires hinted at in the film franchise. "I realized that in order to do it for TV, we had to do something that TV could do better than the features," Goyer (Threshold) said at a news conference during the Television Critics Association winter press tour in Pasadena, Calif., on Jan. 12. "And one of the things that the fans always seemed to be really interested in were all the inner workings and machinations of the vampire world. So we tried to come up with an idea that would allow us to explore that more."

Kirk "Sticky" Jones (Over There) stars as the title half-human, half-vampire warrior in the show, which Goyer described as "like a Wise Guy with vampires." Jill Wagner plays Krista Starr, who goes undercover in the vampire world. "Jill's character is kind of a double agent working for Blade, within the vampire community, and with treating the vampires sort of like the ultimate crime family," Goyer said.

For his part, Jones said that his version of Blade may differ from Wesley Snipes' monosyllabic incarnation in the movies. "Clearly the point of going into the TV show is that we can explore more of his background, more of ... his history from the time when he was first in the streets, even before he met the Whistler character," Jones said. He added: "I feel that Blade has to be communicative. He has to be able to communicate with other characters. You know, he's kind of closed, but he's half-human as well, so he's kind of open. And from Blade 1, 2 and 3, what Wesley did is he kind of graduated it, and I guess we're picking up where that left off."

As for whether Blade will eventually go to series, Spike executive Michael Hirschorn said that a decision "will be made in the next few weeks" based on the pilot. The Blade telefilm airs in June.