This is what Sam Raimi left Spider-Man for? Granted, it's hard for us to look at any fedora-wearing night stalker-type and not think "Frank Miller's Spirit, kill it with fire!" Then again, Alec Baldwin's 90's Shadow movie wasn't much better.
Who could forget Russell Mulcahy's terrible horrible mess of a film The Shadow, with Alec Baldwin doing the Batman voice before it was cool? What you don't remember? Don't worry you're not alone, here's the trailer.
Now Sam Raimi is gearing up to revamp The Shadow series, according to IESB. He's only down as producer right now, but rumor has it he wants to direct. The script was penned by Siavash Farahanl, and sounds a bit gloomier than the Spider-Man worlds Raimi has previously created. It might be a return to his Darkman form, though.
The Shadow was originally a 1930s radio program, and then branched out into comics, TV and movies. The Shadow has the power to "cloud men's minds" and make himself invisible to criminals, or anyone he wants. He then uses that power, a giant cape, and a red scarf to fight crime. Mr. Remorse is his nemesis, and in this new script comes at The Shadow with everything he has "from a flamethrower to an assault rifle while The Shadow relies on his hand to hand combat skills and his trusty Colt 45's," also, "A man thrown into meat grinder and coming out as ground beef on the other side," Which is not helping my Spirit kitty melting issues.
But at least Raimi is definitely not Frank Miller, and will at least attempt to tell a clever story, we hope. Just promise us you'll keep Sam Jackson out of this picture. And, IESB claims the script is "solid," so we're staying cautiously optimistic, for now. Many people are hoping he'll get back to his Darkman roots here, which was by all accounts a fun concept, but I'm not so sure if this is the type of superhero today's audience can swallow anymore. We want sassy Tony Stark, not silly fedoras. But then again, Raimi has pulled it off countless times before, so we'll wait and see.