With Spider-Man off his radar Sam Raimi is in the hunt for a new project. Some have speculated that he could make his Warcraft movie a priority, but IESB says he’s going a different direction and may instead, preside over a reboot of The Shadow. This is something he was rumored to be considering way back in 2006, along with an entire series of classic pulp properties. Now with Spidey out of the way, the project could have his attention again.
The character originated in radio plays broadcast during the 1930s and in 1994 was turned into a movie starring Alec Baldwin as the titular Shadow. Though the movie was a flop, it’s an underrated little superhero gem. The score is fantastic and Alec Baldwin’s deep growl is perfect coming out of Lamont Cranston’s (The Shadow’s alter ego) mouth. It’s hard to imagine anyone else taking the character and doing better, and you’d think the box office failure of the first one would be an indicator that no one is interested in watching even if they try.
Hollywood is trying anyway. There’s already a script for The Shadow reboot project, which IESB reviews favorably as part of their story. It’s set up at Sony where Raimi, after his years on Spider-Man, obviously has some connections. They say Raimi’s itching to get his hands on it and, ironically enough, the character actually bears a passing resemblance to Darkman, a Raimi superhero creation which achieved cult popularity shortly before the release of The Shadow movie and starred Liam Neeson. At the least, both Darkman and The Shadow have a penchant for wide-brimmed hats.
