wesley snipes
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Wesley Snipes is going from slaying vampires to slaying zombies, in the upcoming film ‘Outbreak Z’, which he will also executive produce.  The picture will be directed by ‘Daredevil’ fight choreographer and stunt performer Chris Brewster, so fans might get to see Snipes back kicking butt as savagely as he did in the ‘Blade’ movies, the last of which came out 15 years ago.  The screenplay was written by Hamid Torabpour, Clint Narramore, and Andrew Kightlinger.  Torabpour previously wrote and directed the 2017 film ‘Zombies’ starring ‘Candyman’s Tony Todd.  In addition to his work on ‘Daredevil’, Brewster recently won a Taurus Award for ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’, a Screen Actors Guild Award for ‘Black Panther’, and two World Stunt Awards for ‘Fright Night’.

 

RELATED:  Will Blade Be Taking A Bite Out Of The MCU? Wesley Snipes Teases 2 Marvel Projects!

 

Snipes stars as one of “two SWAT officers on a desperate hunt through an overrun college campus in search of a man who holds a vaccine to a zombie virus.”  The picture will shoot this summer in Minnesota.

According to Brewster, who spoke to ComicBook.com:

“I am so excited to begin the world of ‘Outbreak Z’.  Wesley is an absolute legend in entertainment and martial arts. It is an honor teaming up with him, and joining forces with one of the best in the world. Having him on the team, allows us to create a style of zombie/horror films that has never been seen. This will be an action-packed adventure for everyone. We are breaking all the zombie rules.”

In a prior statement, he said:

“The DNA of our project is ‘action movie’ through and through, and that is why we are casting Hollywood’s stunt superstars in lead roles.  Our zombies will not move or act like anything that the audience has seen before — the action tells the story, so the reactions and defense against the zombies will be vastly different than prior movies in this genre. I truly believe that stunt performing is a dream job. We play full contact make-believe and the more fun we have, the more fun the audience will have!”

Torabpour added:

“’Outbreak Z’ will not be your typical zombie movie.  Chris’ experience on many Marvel features makes him the perfect leader for this film. We will take a very stylistic and unique approach, utilizing the industry’s top stunt performers in the main cast roles, aiming to go beyond what mainstream features can accomplish on screen. With this feature, we want to highlight the amazing work that stunt performers bring to film and give them the spotlight in lead roles.”

Snipes starred in the first ‘Blade’ in 1998, which is usually cited as the first film in the modern wave of comic book movies.  (It followed 1997’s ‘Batman & Robin’ which was essentially the death of the previous era in the genre.)  Snipes went on to star in two more ‘Blade’ movies and has expressed a desire to return to the character under the aegis of Marvel Studios.  He recently made a cameo on FX’s vampire comedy ‘What We Do in the Shadows’, essentially portraying Blade, but going by his real name, Wesley.

More recently, he starred in ‘The Expendables 3’, Spike Lee’s ‘Chi-Raq’, and the NBC TV series ‘The Player’.  He will star opposite Eddie Murphy in the Netflix biopic of actor Rudy Ray Moore, ‘Dolemite is my Name’.

 

Source: The Hollywood Reporter