nlike a lot of horror franchises, where the sequels are little more than carbon copies of the original films but with a higher body count, the makers of the Blade trilogy pride themselves on doing something different with each release.

  The first Blade introduced the titular Day Walker (Wesley Snipes), a half-vampire/half-mortal bent on killing the vampires who murdered his mother. The sequel saw Blade in an uneasy alliance with the vampires to battle the Reapers, a new strain of bloodsuckers that prey on vampires as well as humans.

  Now, in the third installment, Blade: Trinity, the lone-wolfish Blade teams up with a pair of vampire hunters named Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds) and Abigail (Jessica Biel), the daughter of Blade's old partner, Whistler (Kris Kristofferson). Their mission: 
actors
Wesley Snipes
Kris Kristofferson
Jessica Biel
Ryan Reynolds 

director
David Goyer

outtake  
Biel and Reynolds have already signed on for a Blade spinoff movie that will focus on their Nightstalker characters.

Stop a plot to resurrect the daddy of all vampires, Dracula. And this time, the real world keeps getting in their way.

  "Blade is now a known character to the police, the FBI and the news media," explains producer Lynn Harris. "In the first movie, he was still underground. Also, Blade II was much more creature-effects oriented, and in Blade: Trinity, while there are definitely creature effects, we're more centered in the world of action and martial arts. We take this one much further in terms of style and in terms of being set in 'reality'."

  A veteran of last year's horror hit The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Maxim covergirl Biel should fit seamlessly into the tight leather-and-latex outfit of a modern-day vampire hunter. The rest of the new cast, however, aren't armed with much monster movie experience. Reynolds, who packed on 30 pounds of muscle for the movie, has only a couple of starring roles on his resumé -- the raunchy teen comedy National Lampoon's Van Wilder and the Canadian heist flick Foolproof. Indie film queens Parker Posey (Best in Show) and Natasha Lyonne (Slums of Beverly Hills), along along with equally independent writer-actor Eric Bogosian (Talk Radio), round out the unexpected cast.

  "I enjoy a lot of indie and foreign films and I really wanted to populate the cast with a variety of independent stars," explains writer-director David Goyer.
"I'm just delighted with the cast and think it's by far the best one we've had."

  While the fresh blood in the cast and the idea of bringing the series' vampire killers out into the light of day, so to speak, certainly adds to the reality of the new Blade, Goyer went one step further and added another new element to Blade:Trinity that wasn't featured in the first two: Humor.

  "That was a very conscious choice," he says. "By now Blade has dispensed with his angst and is ready to move on. There is a lot more dark humor and, although it's never slapstick, people will be surprised at just how funny the movie is."

  Independent film stars? Humor? These may be a great way to breathe new life into the six-year-old franchise, but what does the original sword-wielding Day Walker think of the changes?

  "It's a little demanding because we are trying to top ourselves, trying to give the audience more than we gave them previously, trying to be more creative and less repetitive," Snipes says. "It requires a little more attention and focus because we have to dig a little deeper."

- John Black