4K Re-release of Blade as MCU pulls a Terminator

Just as Arnie's Termination went back in time to reshape the future, Disney/Marvel, having announced a franchise reboot in 2019, have resuscitated the 1998 classic Blade. From the shades to the notes of humour being infrequent to maintain the sombre, dark tone, Blade was influenced by Cameron's initial pair of iconic movies.

The cost of the 4K restoration which is the marketing hook for this re-release isn't stated, but as a ballpark figure the spate of post-production 3D renderings that followed another Cameron smash, Avatar, was around $10m a pop.

In this glorious era of convergence (see Henry Jenkins and fellow technotopians, initially at least, David Gauntlett and Dan Gillmor for the web 2.0 gospels ... and Andrew Keen for his searing web 3.0 surveillance capitalism rebuttal) the Indies and even bedroom producers can compete with the big 5 vertically integrated global conglomerate behemoths.

An occasional exception (eg Slumdog Millionaire, or horror franchises like Saw) notwithstanding, the marketing muscle of franchise-stuffed conglomerates, now further fuelled by their own subscription platforms, maintains their deathly grip on the monetisation of eyeballs worldwide.

If I get the chance, I'll join the hordes myself - this was an excellent movie, pre-dating the ever-more-tedious MCU (pending Blade reboot, scheduled for 2022, and all) - I'd love an Emmerdale-type reset, wiping out most of the smug, supercilious supes to join Downey Jnr's rusty Iron Man. The 1st sequel was campy but still cool, but by the 3rd it's star Snipes was well on the path that led him to his career-ending jail stint.

See Guardian for more - or a cinema near you to feed the malevolent Mouse your cheddar.