He's coming back...and God help the guilty

The rumor floated around the Internet for the past few days, but now The Hollywood Reporter confirms that Sam Raimi (of the Spider-Man movies) and Columbia Pictures plan to bring The Shadow back to the big screen. They quote Raimi: “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’s 1990 movie Darkman was obviously inspired by The Shadow.) Michael Uslan, one of the producers, is also quoted: “My first comic-book writing gig in the ’70s was writing for DC’s Shadow comics. I had the chance to spend time with Walter Gibson and derive my understanding of the character directly from the original source himself. Working with ... the entire team at Columbia, I know I am working with the Shadow dream team.”

I’ve been a Shadow buff for 40 years, starting with rebroadcasts of the old radio shows, then graduating to paperback reprints of the pulps and finally the various comics versions through the 1970s and ’80s. Heck, I even liked Howard Chaykin’s revisionist take on the character, and I may be one of a half-dozen people who adored the 1994 Universal movie with Alec Baldwin. I’ll be thrilled to see a new Shadow film.