Witchblade | |
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Genre | |
Based on | |
Written by | J. D. Zeik |
Directed by | Ralph Hemecker |
Starring | |
Music by | Joel Goldsmith |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Executive producers | |
Producers |
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Cinematography | Anghel Decca |
Editors | |
Running time | 94 minutes |
Production companies | |
Original release | |
Network | TNT |
Release | August 27, 2000 |
Related | |
Witchblade is a made-for-television live-action superhero film adapted from the comic book by Marc Silvestri and Top Cow Productions. Set in contemporary New York City, the occult police drama centers on Sara Pezzini (Yancy Butler), a brooding and willful homicide detective who is the reluctant inheritor of an ancient, symbiotic weapon that grants her superhuman powers.
Witchblade was directed by Ralph Hemecker, written by J. D. Zeik, and produced by Top Cow Productions and Halsted Pictures in association with Warner Bros. Television. The Turner Network Television (TNT) film made its debut August 27, 2000. The strong ratings performance of the two-hour action-thriller led to the TNT original series Witchblade (2001–2002).
When one of her best friends is murdered, NYPD homicide detective Sara Pezzini (Yancy Butler) is bitter at being unable to bring her killer to justice. Sara is certain the killer is Tommy Gallo (Conrad Dunn), a legendary hit man who seems untouchable.
After one of Gallo's henchmen assaults her partner, Danny Woo (Will Yun Lee), Sara pursues him into a museum where the artifacts of Joan of Arc are among those displayed. While searching for Gallo's man, Sara is momentarily transfixed by a metal gauntlet in a display case –and is startled by a mysterious figure (Eric Etebari) who vanishes as quickly as he appears. During a savage gunfight in the museum, the display case is shattered and the gauntlet careens through space and finds Sara's arm, miraculously protecting her. In time it appears that all of these events have converged through the machinations of a billionaire named Kenneth Irons (Anthony Cistaro), a man obsessed with an artifact called the Witchblade.
The Witchblade is a magical weapon that chooses who will wear it –and it has chosen but a few warriors, all of them women, throughout the centuries. To understand the Witchblade and why she was chosen to wield it, Sara embarks on a difficult search for self-discovery and justice.
In April 1998, Turner Network Television announced plans for the two-hour live-action feature film, Witchblade, to premiere in early 1999 as part of the cable network's significant increase in original programming. The film was to be the pilot for an hour-long TNT series that would be filmmaker Oliver Stone's first drama series for television. [1] Executive producer Stone had taken Top Cow's project to Warner Bros. Television, which agreed to finance development and took Witchblade to TNT, a sister company in the Time-Warner family. [2] In October 1999, the pilot film was still in development with Stone's company, Illusion Entertainment, [3] but when filming began in February 2000, Stone was no longer attached to the Witchblade project. Instead, Witchblade was executive produced by Dan Halsted, Stone's former partner, and Top Cow Productions' Marc Silvestri. [4]
Executive producer Marc Silvestri explained Stone's departure during the production: "As with all things Hollywood it was several train wrecks that somehow made it to the station. Honestly, it amazes me how anything gets produced at all". Silvestri attributed Stone's departure to a creative dispute with TNT. [5]
The teleplay by J. D. Zeik is a loose adaptation of the Top Cow comic book. Director Ralph Hemecker said: "We use the comic book to get the essential DNA of the story. We've maintained a lot of the elements of the original eight issues of the comic book ... making it more of a character-driven piece". [6]
Witchblade was filmed in Toronto in February and March 2000. [7] As well as original music by Joel Goldsmith, the soundtrack includes songs by U2 ("Mysterious Ways"), Beth Orton ("She Cries Your Name"), Rob Zombie ("Living Dead Girl") and The Guess Who ("American Woman"). The telefilm premiered on TNT Sunday, August 27, 2000.
"Emergence", the episode that begins the second season of the Witchblade television series, uses scenes from the pilot film in presenting an alternative scenario after Sara uses the powerful weapon to reverse time.
Witchblade was the top-rated movie for the week of August 21–27, 2000, earning a 4.5 Nielsen rating (3,491,000 households) for its premiere broadcast. The TNT Original also was the top movie among the key adult demographics 18–49 (3,157,000) and the most-watched program among adults 25–54 (3,631,000). The thriller was still the number-one original movie among adults 18–49 and 25–54 in October 2000, when TNT announced that it had ordered 11 one-hour episodes of an action-drama series into production. [8]
The WB Television Network, a sibling of TNT in the Time Warner media conglomerate, selected Witchblade as the debut film for a new Tuesday-night movie series in May 2001. In its broadcast-television debut, the movie drew 5.2 million viewers –matching the numbers the WB earned with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel in the previous season, and topping the WB's season average of 4.2 million viewers. [9]
On TNT, Witchblade was reprised June 5, 2001, introducing the Warner Bros. TV series of the same name, which began airing a week later.
In April 2001, Warner Home Video released Witchblade in Australia in PAL-format VHS. The 91-minute film was rated M (medium level violence, supernatural theme) by the Classification Board of Australia. [10]
In July 2008, Witchblade was released as part of Witchblade –The Complete Series, a seven-disc set that comprised the feature-length pilot and all 23 episodes of the TV series. Although the widescreen Region 1 DVD set from Warner Home Video features an all-new soundtrack selected by the executive producer, the songs in the series pilot were not replaced. ISBN 1-4198-0424-3
Witchblade is an American comic book series published by Top Cow Productions, an imprint of Image Comics, which ran from November 1995 to October 2015. The series was created by Top Cow founder and owner Marc Silvestri, editor David Wohl, writers Brian Haberlin and Christina Z, and artist Michael Turner.
Yancy Victoria Butler is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Natasha Binder in the 1993 film Hard Target, Jess Crossman in Drop Zone (1994), and Detective Sara Pezzini on the TNT supernatural drama series Witchblade. For her performance in Witchblade, she won a Saturn Award for Best Actress in a Television Series.
Marc Silvestri is an American comic book artist, creator and publisher. He is CEO of Top Cow Productions and Image Comics.
Top Cow Productions is an American comics publisher, an imprint of Image Comics. It was founded by Marc Silvestri in 1992.
The Darkness is a superhero created by Marc Silvestri, Garth Ennis, and David Wohl, who first appeared in Witchblade #10, published by Top Cow Productions. Jackie Estacado is a New York mafioso who, after turning 21, inherits the curse of the Darkness.
Sara Magdalene Pezzini is a fictional superheroine starring in the Witchblade series. Sara also appeared in a Turner Network Television live-action feature film and TV series of the same name and she was portrayed by Yancy Butler. She is an NYPD homicide detective whose life changed when she came into contact with a powerful ancient weapon known as the Witchblade, which bestows its wielder with supernatural powers.
The Magdalena is a superheroine created by Joe Benitez, David Wohl, and Malachy Coney for Top Cow Productions. The character is based on the Biblical character of Mary Magdalene, and the theory of the bloodline resulting from Mary's marriage to Jesus Christ, from which according to the storyline, the Magdalena is descended.
Kenneth Irons is a comic book supervillain. He is depicted as the person behind nearly every evil deed in the Top Cow series Witchblade.
David Wohl is an American comic book writer and editor. He is best known as an editor at Marvel Comics and Top Cow Productions and, at the latter, writing The Darkness and Witchblade.
Brian Haberlin is an American comic book artist, writer, editor and producer. He is best known as the co-creator of the Witchblade franchise and for his digital art style.
Mark Verheiden is an American television, movie, and comic-book writer. He was a co-executive producer for the television series Falling Skies for DreamWorks Television and the TNT network.
Conrad Dunn is an American actor. He began his screen career with the role of Francis "Psycho" Soyer in Stripes (1981). Working for some ten years under the name George Jenesky, he achieved soap-opera stardom in Days of Our Lives as Nick Corelli, a misogynistic pimp who evolved from bad guy to romantic lead. He returned to the name Conrad Dunn and began working extensively in Canadian as well as U.S. film and television. He excels as a villain, and has found depth in such TV films as We the Jury (1996) and the miniseries The Last Don (1997–1998). For two seasons he portrayed the freelance detective Saul Panzer in the A&E TV series Nero Wolfe (2001–2002).
Witchblade is an American television series that aired on TNT from 2001 to 2002. The series is based on the Witchblade comic book series, and followed a pilot film that debuted in August 2000. Some of the episodes were written by Ralph Hemecker, Marc Silvestri and J.D. Zeik.
The Angelus is an American comic character featured in publications by Top Cow Productions. Initially appearing in the first lineup of The Darkness in 1997, the Angelus has featured as an antagonist and occasional supporting character in issues of The Darkness and Witchblade. Described as the antithesis of the Darkness, as well as essentially being the mother of the Witchblade, the Angelus is a powerful opponent that has challenged both Jackie Estacado and Sara Pezzini on several occasions. She has also made cameos in a few other Top Cow titles.
The Tomb Raider comic book series is based on the video game franchise Tomb Raider, currently produced by Crystal Dynamics, which features the character of Lara Croft. The original series of comics, which were released between 1999 and 2005, was published by Top Cow and was primarily based on the games released by Core Design. In 2014, following the reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise, the series was revived and is currently being published by Dark Horse Comics. The new timeline of events is based upon the rebooted iteration of Lara Croft and her adventures.
Pilot Season was an annual initiative begun in 2007 by American comics publisher Top Cow Productions. Readers were able to vote on the future of six one-shot pilot comics released throughout the year. Voting took place on the Pilot Season MySpace page and the highest vote-getters later became ongoing series.
Witchblade is an American comic book series published by Top Cow Productions.
Jorge Zamacona is an American television writer and producer. He worked extensively on the police drama Homicide: Life on the Street and wrote the series' crossover episodes with the crime drama Law & Order. Zamacona co-created the police dramas 10-8: Officers on Duty and Wanted.
Christina Z is an American comics writer known for being the first woman to break onto the Wizard magazine Top 10 list of top-selling writers. She achieved this status for her work on the Image Comics title Witchblade. She wrote and laid the foundation of the first 39 issues of the Witchblade series. In 2008, she made news by taking the writing duties for Virgin Comics Shadow Hunter that featured adult film star Jenna Jameson. She has also been a music journalist on and off over the course of 20 years.