Josh Donen Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Our search engine and Google refuse to provide me with our last update on the return of The Shadow (I know one was published in the last month or so!) but I am sure you remember that Sam Raimi acquired the rights to The Street and Smith Roster of pulp heroes, and has been working to bring a new adaptation of The Shadow to the big screen for a few years now.

MTV's Splash Page caught up with Michael Uslan for an update on the project. Uslan has promised that the latest version would be a brand new take on the character -- and Uslan's cryptic description might leave visions of The Spirit dancing in your heads. "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. The Shadow may actually be many people." But they're also doing the proper research to stay true to the character. "We've gone back to the pulp roots, the comic book roots of The Shadow, with a dash of the radio roots. But we've deeply ensconced ourselves in the world of pulps and comics."

Only a few days ago, there were rumblings of an epic film of pulp fiction -- the real kind, not the kind with dance-offs and Royales with cheese. Matt Bradshaw reported that Sam Raimi was set to bring us a film full of The Avenger, Doc Savage and of course, The Shadow. The way it was sounding, it'd be like a Sin City of heroes, without the handy comic to tell us the plot beforehand. However, now there are rumblings all over the net about the film, and the only hero being mentioned is is the shadowy one himself.

This will be a great second chance for Raimi, who first tried to make The Shadow a starring reality in the early 90s, couldn't get the rights, and the film became a quickly-forgotten flop by other hands. With Columbia Pictures having picked up the screen rights to the film, Raimi and Josh Donen producing through Buckaroo Entertainment, and Siavash Farahani still writing, the film is off to a better start already.

And as Hollywood is so damned good at keeping with themes, this will come on the heels of the Orson Welles movie Fade to Black, starring Danny Huston. This might just be time for the Welles renaissance, since he tackled the voice of The Shadow before he created Chaos with War of the Worlds, or made one of the best movies of all time. As long as the revival doesn't lead to a remake of Citizen Kane, this just might be a great thing. Filmmakers, if you're even considering the possibility, please remember: "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!"