Caffeinated Clint
Forgotten box-office superstar leaves Spike Lee film
Wesley Snipes just blew it. Again.
The uneasy tax-evader had been given a second – or was it a third? – shot at redeeming himself (the first being New Line’s “Blade Trinity” – – and we all know how that ended? With a bank deficit and the star suing the studio for the heck of it, burning many a bridge in the meantime) by being offered a role by old friend Spike Lee (who Snipes had worked with on “Jungle Fever”) in his new film, “Miracle at St. Anna”, says Variety.
But the angels aren’t too fond of Snipes anymore; it seems, with the pact coming to a hasty close.
Snipes didn’t willingly quit the film – he had no choice. You see, because of his tax problems the straight-to-video action star isn’t allowed to enter Africa, where the movie’s set to shoot, so he had step back. No doubt he offered a few choice words to the custom official on the other end of the line. And you can kind of understand it – this would’ve been Snipes’ best role/film since, well, I can’t even think.
It would’ve been a great part for Snipes – he would’ve played one of four members of the U.S. Army’s all-black 92nd Division who get separated from their squad behind enemy lines. The soldiers, bitter about racism and the feeling that their own government treats its enemy better than it does them, finds humanity in the small Tuscan village of St. Anna.
The part will now be played by Derek Luke (“Friday Night Lights”).
I actually kinda feel for Snipes – I mean, he has experienced every high, but also, every low that comes from working in the fickle world of film. He was on a real roll there in the 80s and 90s – starring in the likes of “New Jack City”, “Mo’ Better Blues”, “White Men Can’t Jump” and “One Night Stand” – at one stage even coming close to toppling Denzel as the African American actor of the decade – with his versatile turns . And though he did the odd action movie too, like “Demolition Man”, “Rising Sun” and, of course, “Blade”, they were all decent, polished studio-pics… something more of his more recent efforts (which usually go direct to DVD) most definitely aren’t. Some will no doubt still be frowning upon the kudos but return to some of his early efforts and tell me he’s ain’t a good actor – check him out in those Spike Lee movies, for instance. And though he never quite managed the action-hero status of any ex-Planet Hollywood owners he was right at home, and enjoyable to watch, in his action movies too – some of those fight scenes in “Passenger 57” were just grand. Grand.
How a little thing like faking your tax return, a temper and an ego can get in the way of a career hey? Things have got so bad for Snipes, I’m betting he’d even say yes to play Willie Mays Hayes in another “Major League” film if it came his way. Lets hope, for his sake, Spike Lee’s got another film in mind for the Sniper.
