Witchblade (2000 film)

Witchblade promotional poster.

Witchblade is a made-for-television live-action superhero film adapted from the Witchblade comics series. The Turner Network Television 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).

Plot

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.

Cast

• Yancy Butler as Sara Pezzini, homicide detective and reluctant bladewielder
• Anthony Cistaro as Kenneth Irons, billionaire obsessed with controlling the bearer of the Witchblade
• Conrad Dunn as Tommy Gallo, most powerful man in the underworld
• David Chokachi as Jake McCartey, rookie NYPD police detective and former champion surfer
• Kenneth Welsh as Joe Siri, Sara's supervisor, also her late father's partner and best friend
• Will Yun Lee as Danny Woo, Sara's partner and guardian angel
• Eric Etebari as Ian Nottingham, enigmatic protégé of Kenneth Irons
• John Hensley as Gabriel Bowman
• Jody Racicot as Drexler
• Hal Eisen as Lorenzo Vespucci
• Jim Codrington as Officer Smitty
• Tony Munch as Guy in Men's room
• Katherine Trowell as Receptionist
• Whitney Westwood as Maria Bonazzi

Trivia

• On the part 1 DVD of the complete series, a segment of Gabriel Bowman's philosophical speech on the Witchblade, he explains that the Witchblade is an object of power, and that he feels that he needs to record everything he knows about it because of some dreams he had been having.
• Lazar sighting: Lazar is seen in the cemetery after the funeral of Danny Woo, and speaks to Sara for the first time, asking her if she is doing fine.

Production

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. 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. In October 1999, the pilot film was still in development with Stone's company, Illusion Entertainment; 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.

"As with all things Hollywood it was several train wrecks that somehow made it to the station", said executive producer Marc Silvestri. "Honestly, it amazes me how anything gets produced at all." Silvestri attributed Stone's departure to a creative dispute with TNT.

The teleplay by J. D. Zeik is a loose adaptation of the Top Cow comic book. "We use the comic book to get the essential DNA of the story", director Ralph Hemecker said. "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."

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.