Sam Raimi's The Shadow

[Prelude95Si]

Columbia & Raimi Team on The Shadow
Source: The Hollywood Reporter December 11, 2006

Columbia Pictures has acquired the screen rights to The Shadow, the legendary 1930s pulp hero, for an adaptation to be produced by Sam Raimi (the "Spider-Man" movies) and Josh Donen through their Buckaroo Entertainment. Michael Uslan is also producing via his Comic Book Movies, Llc/Branded Entertainment.

Columbia has set Siavash Farahani to write the screenplay, says The Hollywood Reporter.

The Shadow debuted in 1931 on a CBS radio show which aimed to boost the magazine circulation of sponsor Street & Smith. The character was actually the moniker for the announcer, and listeners began demanding stories based on the name.

Walter B. Gibson created the character, writing the adventures of a crime-fighter who skulked in shadows wearing a hat and cape, and who had the power to cloud men's minds.

The Shadow became one of the greatest pulp heroes of the time, and the radio series, which featured a young Orson Welles, spawned the catchphrase "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!"

The character's most recent incarnation was a big-budget 1994 feature from Universal starring Alec Baldwin and directed by Russell Mulcahy.

"I've been a passionate Shadow fan ever since I was a kid and have long dreamed of bringing this character to the screen," Raimi said. He is not attached to direct at this time.

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I say do a sequal to the '94 film b/c it was great and if Raimi likes doing superhero movies so much stick to Spider-Man b/c if Raimi leaves, the films will go down hill like X3 did when Singer left to go do gay ass Stupied Man Returns.

[phantomstranger]

"The Shadow" has been one of my favorite characters for decades. I can't wait.

[The Flayed One]

I think it'd be swell if they could fit in some old sound bytes from "The Mercury Theater of the Air" shows.

[PhilnEdee]

This the same character Baldwin played?

[Prelude95Si]

This the same character Baldwin played?

Yes, one of the few performances that I felt Baldwin actually did good.

[phantomstranger]

For anybody interested in reading about the original "Shadow" adventures check out this site:

http://thepulp.net/theshadow.html

also Nostalgia Ventures Publishing is currently reprinting the original novels

[PhilnEdee]

Yes, one of the few performances that I felt Baldwin actually did good.

Cool. Other than the teeth thing with the knife, I liked this movie alot.

[Prelude95Si]

Cool. Other than the teeth thing with the knife, I liked this movie alot.

Really? I thought the Perver (the knife with teeth) was kinda cool except for its comic moments like when it wipes its mouth after Baldwin wipes his.
By today's standards though the CGI is kinda cheap looking but back then I thought it was preety good.

[slasherman]

Really? I thought the Perver (the knife with teeth) was kinda cool except for its comic moments like when it wipes its mouth after Baldwin wipes his.
By today's standards though the CGI is kinda cheap looking but back then I thought it was preety good.

The Baldwin Shadow movie isnt bad ..it reminds me of "The Darkman" in a way..what I miss in Baldwin Shadow is a cool villian...

[urgeok]

Yes, one of the few performances that I felt Baldwin actually did good.


sir ian mckellen is in it as well..

and wasnt the bad guy played by John Lone ?

[Prelude95Si]

The Baldwin Shadow movie isnt bad ..it reminds me of "The Darkman" in a way..what I miss in Baldwin Shadow is a cool villian...

The first Darkman is a great movie but I'd really care too much for the sequals.

[PhilnEdee]

The first Darkman is a great movie but I'd really care too much for the sequals.

Yep...sequels were dogshit...hell now that I think about it...I didn't even like the first one.
Def interested in a new Shadow movie though.

[phantomstranger]

Published by Casey Seijas on Wednesday, January 21, 2009 at 1:50 pm.

'The Shadow'Around 2007, rumors of a possible revamp of longtime pulp stalwart “The Shadow” began popping up around the message boards, fueled by veteran producer Michael Uslan’s insistence that this time around he’d be offering fans a take on the character that’s more true to his roots. Then, when word got out that Sam Raimi was onboard as a fellow producer, fans knew this vision of The Shadow would be vastly different from the 1994 offering.

For those of you holding out hope that Uslan would stay true to his word about a new take on the character, you won’t be disappointed.

“I think the one thing going in is we all see The Shadow as more of a force of nature than a specific person in a secret identity,” Uslan told MTV in an exclusive interview. “The Shadow may actually be many people.”

“We’ve gone back to the pulp roots, the comic book roots of The Shadow, with a dash of the radio roots,” added Uslan. “But we’ve deeply ensconced ourselves in the world of pulps and comics.”

Sounds cool to us, but that begged the question of when we’ll see this “Shadow” revamp hit the multiplex.

“Sam [Raimi] and Josh Donen are my partners and we have it set up Sony, and a wonderful writer named Siavash Farahani who has worked for me before is writing the screenplay,” Uslan said. “It’s coming along great, we’re very excited about it. You know, it takes time to nurture these things. You probably know all the stories. The first ‘Batman’ film took me 10 years to get made.”

S

[_____V_____]

Following the Spider-Man 4 debacle, all eyes were on World of Warcraft as Sam Raimi's next potential gig behind the camera. But IESB are reporting that an inside source at Camp Raimi reckons the director may well opt for The Shadow, before galloping off to Azeroth.

All so much hearsay of course, but maybe, just maybe, there's something in it. Raimi was already attached to The Shadow as a producer, and Warcraft isn't yet written, while Siavash Farahanl handed in the second draft of his Shadow script in the second half of last year.

As a lower-rung hero - at least in terms of general moviegoer recognition - The Shadow isn't necessarily a huge undertaking, meaning Raimi could possibly bring some of his back-to-basics Drag Me to Hell approach to the material. If that was taking us back to the Evil Dead days, maybe this could hark back to Darkman.

Plus the "ferocious" script that IESB describe - broken bones, meat grinders - sounds like old-school R-rated Raimi's kind of fun.

The Shadow, for those unfamiliar, started life on American radio in the 1930s (voiced in early days by Orson Welles), and burgeoned into pulp fiction, comics and b-movies, the last of which was directed by Russell Mulcahy in 1994, starring Alec Baldwin. A tortuous back-story means that the Shadow identity is shared between WWI aviator Kent Allard and wealthy socialite Lamont Cranston, but in both forms he's a master of disguise, master of hypnotism, crime-fighter and wearer of a big hat. His chief sidekick is slinky 40s it-girl Margot Lane. His nemesis in Farahanl's screenplay is called Mr Remorse..,

As we said, it's absolutely just a rumour at this stage. But who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?

[phantomstranger]

The Shadow Lurks at Fox
Source:Latino Review
March 4, 2010


Latino Review is reporting that the new version of The Shadow is no longer at Sony Pictures. According to the site, 20th Century Fox has picked up the property with Sam Raimi still attached to produce.

The site says the studio is eyeing David Slade to direct the film. Slade's credits include Hard Candy, 30 Days of Night (produced by Raimi) and upcoming The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.

Universal Pictures previously brought the character to the big screen in 1994 when Alec Baldwin played the title role in the Russell Mulcahy-directed The Shadow.