Darkman Tagged Articles at Cinematical

• Kathleen Canham Ross (c.1954-2007) - Head of the U.S. Army's entertainment liason office, which assists Hollywood with its depictions of the U.S. Army. While under her leadership, the office was involved with the productions of Black Hawk Down, We Were Soldiers, The Invasion and Transformers. She died of complications following breast cancer treatment May 9, in Woodland Hills, California. (Variety)
• Lois Gibson (c.1930-2007) - Writer who co-wrote the story for Crypt of the Living Dead. She died May 6, in Malibu, California. (Variety)
• Bernard Gordon (1918-2007) - Blacklisted screenwriter who wrote the Ronald and Nancy Reagan movie Hellcats of the Navy (pictured) and co-wrote Earth vs. the Flying Saucers under the pseudonym Raymond T. Marcus. Before becoming one of the tragically blacklisted, he wrote Crime Wave and The Lawless Breed. He also worked under the name John T. Williams and later worked for producer Philip Yordan, who was originally given the credit for Gordon's screenplays for The Day of the Triffids and Battle of the Bulge. He was able to put his name on 1964's The Thin Red Line and Nicholas Ray's 55 Days at Peking. In the '70s he produced three films by Eugenio Martín, including Horror Express. He died of cancer May 11, in Los Angeles. (Variety)
• Curtis Harrington (1922-2007) - Writer and director of genre pics Night Tide, Games, and Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet, the latter of which he wrote under the alias John Sebastian. He also directed Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? and What's the Matter With Helen?, both starring his close friend Shelley Winters. He was known for being able to mix a career in Hollywood with a career in the avant-garde scene; he worked for big producers Jerry Wald and Philip Yordan but also for artsy filmmaker Kenneth Anger. More recently he made an appropriate cameo appearance in Gods and Monsters. He died May 6, in Hollywood. (Variety)
• Sydney Rose (1939-2007) - Executive producer of the Who concert film The Kids Are Alright and assistant producer of The Adventures of Barry McKenzie. He died of pancreatic cancer April 30, in London. (Variety)
• Nicholas Worth (1938-2007) - Character actor who played the villainous strangler in Don't Answer the Phone! He also appears in Darkman, The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! and Swamp Thing. He died of heart failure May 7, in Van Nuys, California. (LA Times)

Sam Raimi's Darkman is an oddly appealing and unique "hero;" a mentally and physically scarred "mad" scientist who is immune to most forms of pain, thanks to destroyed nerve endings resulting from the same accident which left him scarred and mentally unbalanced. With the aid of synthetic skin and other tricks, Darkman hunts down the criminals who destroyed his lab and left him in his wretched state. The movie enjoys a solid cult-following (although it often garnered mediocre reviews outside of said following), and was followed up by two made-for-video sequels created by a different cast and crew.

Intending to bank on the built-in fanbase and use the unusual nature of the character to appeal to the rest of the industry, Dynamite Entertainment has teamed up with Universal Studios Consumer Products Group to create a new Darkman comic title written Kurt Busiek and Roger Stern. The debut storyline is rumored to include another popular Sam Raimi character-although no names have been dropped yet, Ash is of course widely speculated.

I think Darkman is an excellent choice for a new comic book line (am I making things up, or did he have a few brief Marvel special runs at some point?) as he fits the general comic world feel very well. Of course, I count myself as a solid member of the movie's cult following, so my opinion may be slightly biased. At any rate, if I remember to look it up by the time it comes out, I'll certainly give it a try.