Los Angeles: Win Tickets To BLADE!
Once upon a time - 1998, to be specific - the idea of making a summer movie based on a Marvel comic book was so risky, the resulting film had to be shuttled off to the end of August, when all the blockbusters had come and gone and the studios hoped to just break even with "B movies". Nowadays Marvel movies get the weekend to themselves, but twenty years ago today, New Line opted to release Blade on the same day as three other films, including one from Warner Bros, their parent studio (let's also consider how wacky it is that a Marvel movie came out from a TimeWarner studio). The film's success not only led to two sequels, but proved that audiences would show up in droves for something based on a comic book character that wasn't Superman or Batman. If Blade tanked, it would be very interesting to see what the next ten years of Marvel films would have looked like. Probably like this.
So to say "thanks" for all it paved the way for, Screamfest and I wanted to celebrate and honor this movie with a big screen showing! It'll be this Thursday, August 23rd at 7:30pm at the TCL Chinese in Hollywood, and we'd like to give a pair of tickets away to one of you fine folks. To win, just let me know (via the comments below) what Marvel character you'd like to see get his or her own big-screen movie, be it part of the ongoing MCU or a standalone effort like they used to be. It's hard to believe that all of this really started with a character who didn't even have his own ongoing book at the time of the film's release, so believe me: no one is too obscure to secure a decent budget and a hefty gross ($70m), so go nuts. I'll be picking a winner sometime on Wednesday, so get those replies in by then and please include a Twitter handle or some other easy way of contacting you.
If you don't want to take your chances on winning, you can buy tickets HERE. As always, if you're 21+ you get a complimentary beer with your ticket purchase, and I'll be doing some trivia so you might win something too. Wesley Snipes is shooting a movie so he can't make it (we tried!), but fear not: a Q&A with producer Bob Engelman and actor Eric Edwards ("Pearl") will follow the screening, so please stick around for that if you can!
