Now that director Sam Raimi (Drag Me To Hell, Spiderman) is officially off of Spiderman 4–it seems that Sony has gone with 500 Days of Summer helmer Marc Webb – there’s much speculation in the geek realm about what comes next.

The die-hard Raimi nerds are no doubt clamoring for Evil Dead 4, but in recent weeks it has appeared that the big budget fantasy adaptation of World of Warcraft is going to be Sam’s next project. Today, via the rumor mill, comes word of another project that the director might be putting his hands on soon; The Shadow.

Raimi has been on tap as producer of the new version, being penned by  Slavash Farahani, since 2007. Sources are citing however, that he’s now interested in possibly directing the movie himself.

That’s right. If these rumors prove to be true, the man who brought us Spiderman will be taking us into the world of The Shadow, a character whose crime-fighting history not 0nly outdates the webslinger but the dark knight as well. Originally appearing on July 31st, 1930 as the mysterious narrator of the Street and Smith Detective Hour, The Shadow rose to fame via a series of novels, comic books, films and serialized programs.

Immortalized in print by the pulp writer Walter B. Gibson, The Shadow followed the adventures of Kent Allard who took on the alias of playboy Lamont Cranston and fought crime by moonlight as the mind-bending Shadow, whose tagline suggested that he ‘knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men.’ Existing both in the light of the 30′s era social scene and the criminal underbelly of New York, Cranston shared similarities with his contemporary Kit Walker, and later characters like Bruce Wayne and Denny Colt.

In 1994, Highlander director Russell Mulcahy headed up a big-budget adaptation of The Shadow that starred Alec Baldwin, John Lone, Penelope Ann Miller, Ian McKellan and Tim Curry. Although lost in the shuffle of July, where The Lion King, True Lies and Speed were still burning up the box office, Mulcahy’s film is actually a pretty good rendition of the source material. Borrowing heavily from Burton’s Batman and Raimi’s own Darkman, Baldwin’s Shadow was both a darker and more humorous character than the Cranston of the radio plays.

With a compelling backstory–Cranston struggles with his own dark urges and sordid past– and a wealth of history and mythology to draw from, one can only imagine what  Raimi might do with The Shadow.

I, for one, am excited. A fantasy/suspense period piece with a superhero at its center and directed by the same guy who gave us Army of Darkness and A Simple Plan could be quite something. Personally, I’m more interested in what Raimi could bring to the table of this potential franchise than anything that’s been discussed regarding World of Warcraft.

Atomic Popcorn will keep you updated on this project, while I secretly keep my fingers crossed hoping we can get Bruce ‘The Chin’ Campbell as Lamont Cranston.

This has got to be one of the best Youtube videos I have seen to date. I am not a big fan of either Youtube or Tom Cruise, but this is pure genius caught on tape.

It comes supposedly from the upcoming comedy spoof, Superhero Movie. Watch it enjoy it, hopefully you will laugh out loud as I did.

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