As a result of the Union Square Virgin Megastore's Closing Sale ("Lights and Light Fixtures also for sale") this week, I was able to obtain a copy of the New Line Platinum Series Edition 2-Disc Unrated Version of Blade: Trinity for all of $4. As the third film in the franchise and the fourth in my bag (alongside Blade 2 and Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder) expectations were not particularly high. Iom did mi koni kio trezoro estis interna.
Among the special features (collected under the title 'Nightstalkers, Daywalkers and Familiars: The World of Blade: Trinity' - which to my mind has more colons than are necessary for any self respecting moniker) is a piece in which director David S Goyer talks about how cities are often bilingual or multilingual. Road signs and public warnings are therefore often in English and another language - in LA it might be Spanish, in Swansea perhaps Welsh, in New York almost always Hobo Scrawl.
Since the city in which the Blade films take place is never actually named, Goyer decided that the city's denizens would be fluent in Esperanto - that wonderful "international auxiliary language" that never really caught on. So all signage and advertisements in the film include Esperanto elements, and there are even segments of dialogue in Esperanto - such as an exchange between Kris Kristofferson's character Whistler and a newsvendor in which they discuss the growing public perception that Blade is a menace to society. An Esperanto flag is also visible in one scene, during a fight between Blade and a recently awoken Dracula (yes, really - only he's called Drake here - perhaps because of his leather pants.)
There is even a scene that has a character watching Incubus - a 1965 black and white horror classic starring William Shatner (yes, that William Shatner) which has the distinction of being the only feature film completely in Esperanto.
Wonderful stuff for $4. And if all that wasn't enough, there's an alternate ending that has the Ryan Reynolds and Jessica Biel characters fighting a werewolf-vampire hybrid in a Shanghai casino run by Russian mobsters in stetsons and inhabited by girls in assless chaps. So that's nice.
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I don't know what to react to. Esperanto, Drake, the VIRGIN MEGASTORE IS CLOSING DOWN?????
ReplyDeleteThe real story here is that there is an intersection called 'Pant-y-Blawd' in Swansea, and that the local Welsh newspaper is called 'Golwyg'
ReplyDeleteThese names can't be real!
Past tense actually - I think its done - NYC is virgin megastore free.
ReplyDeleteAnd its quite likely that my first son will be named Golwyg. Maybe even Golwyg-by-the-Sea.
'Golwyg' sounds like a politically incorrect Enid Blyton character....
ReplyDeleteI've never noticed a single Hobo scrawl sign in New York. Am I obtuse? Or are they like gypsy curses: something you read of a lot but never really see
ReplyDeleteThe connection re Enid Blyton political correctness and your Noddy post are not lost on me - the fact that the original Noddy's best friend was named for a congenital defect that resulted in otological gigantism is evidence of enough of Blyton's cruel sensibilities.
ReplyDeletere Hobo Scrawl in NYC you are not obtuse. I just figured that if ever there was a city that would have its signage commandeered and modified by a cooperative band of miscreants it would be NYC.