Citizen Snipes or Where Is Wesley Snipes? His Dinner Is Getting All Cold and Eaten.

Perhaps there are some of you fellow movie fans out there that have been wondering whatever happened to Wesley Snipes? Me too. Last seen in Blade Trinity (saved only by Jessica Biel and Ryan Reynolds being in the film) in 2004, Snipes has since done 5 direct to DVD films and has an upcoming zombie shoot'em up film due to be released in 2009. Recently, he has been having legal troubles, owing the United States government money in unpaid taxes. He is also rumored to have a gambling addiction, as a friend told me he had heard on the questionably reputable new program Celebrity Justice. Where did it all go wrong Wesley?

Snipes was once seen as the next rising action star. Starring in films such as the Blade films, Murder at 1600, Money Train and The Art of War. Vin Diesel was also supposed to be the next action star, but seems now to be more interested in the business end of it. He helped developed the Chronicles of Riddick video game. He has also expressed interested in appearing in a once discussed Guys and Dolls remake, although he admits that he cannot sing or dance but would like to learn. Diesel starred in the action-comedy The Pacifier, which is as Arnoldesque as one can get, so it seemed likely that he would become the next Schwarzenegger, but that has not happened. Next, former wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson stars in Doom (I can imagine Schwarzenegger playing Duke Nukem if they were to have done a film version) and then in The Gameplan, that seems to have a Kindergarten Cop vibe to it. Currently, The Rock is in the much delayed Southland Tales from Donnie Darko genius creator Richard Kelly. Coming to a theatre sometime in my lifetime...I hope.

Anyway, I digest. Yes, I stole that from Family Guy Presents Blue Harvest. Wanna fight about it? (Yes I stole that from a Family Guy episode. Don't act surprised. It seems that with Wesley fading away or burning out, depending on your opinion, the only actor poised to fill in the gap that his presence in Hollywood filled is Will Smith. Smith of course gained fame as a rapper and star of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in that late 80s into the 90s and continued on into mainstream film, alternating his time between comedic films and action/sci-fi films, mixing in a few drama roles as well. He has most recently been seen in I AM LEGEND (the third adaptation of the book of the same name) , which had previously been in development with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the main role, but budget estimates scared the studio into delay until recently.

Snipes might be seen as a "Falling Star", although despite Kevin Smith's joke about dodging his "Falling Star" friend Ben Affleck, Affleck is no longer a "Falling Star" with his directorial debut Gone Baby Gone being regard as a very good thriller/drama (according to me, but I am sure a few others agree at least). Gone Baby Gone is of course from the Dennis Lehane novel of the same name. Lehane is becoming increasingly adapted (see also ELMORE LEONARD) since Eastwood adapted Lehane's book Mystic River into an Oscar winning film a few years ago. Scorsese is using Lehane's novel Shutter Island for his next film starring....Leo DiCaprio (but surprise eh?); DiCaprio is great though, so don't be hating. Lehane's short story Until Gwen is currently being adapted into a film version, making is seem likely that he is becoming the next Michael Crichton (who has at least 11 of his roughly 20 books made into films). Of course, there are differences between the two author's. Lehane being a good writer. OHH Take That MICHAEL CRICHTON! What are you going to do? Write another book? I dare you. Make it a good one, so they will make it into a film and then I will go see it.

I keep going off on tangents. Well, readers get used to it cause I am going to be doing a lot of it in my blogs. Snipes' paychecks went from 7 million in 1994's Drop Zone to a much undeserved 13 million in 2004's Blade Trinity. If you have not seen the flick, I will tell you that he phoned it in Christian Slater style in Alone in the Dark. I have a theory that it was the gambling that did Snipes in. This is not a good theory though cause he is still married to his wife of a bunch of years and has 4 kids with her. But if on his deathbed he whispers partypoker. net then we will know that I was correct.