I’m attempting to make a fan film of The Shadow. Please consider following the movie’s launch page on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/delarosa/theshadowfanfilm
As is probably the case for most fans my age, my introduction to The Shadow was the 1994 film starring Alec Baldwin. I remember seeing snippets of it on TV before finally renting it on VHS a few years later.
Is it a great movie? It certainly has its flaws, and I could write a whole separate article highlighting everything wrong with it. What the movie does have going for it is that it is just fun. John Lone, Alec Baldwin, and Tim Curry really went for it with their performances, and Jerry Goldsmith’s score is one of my all-time favorite film scores. Is the writing cheesy? Yes, but you know, people sometimes say that about my writing. Am I blinded by nostalgia? Perhaps. It’s a weakness we millennials have. Did I rush to buy the collector’s edition Blu-ray when it came out? You bet I did.
In college, I took an acting class where we were required to attend casting calls, and I went to one for a local radio performance of The Shadow: Spider Boy. There was a kid, not yet a teen, whose audition I will never forget. He didn’t read for Spider Boy, oh no. He read for Lamont Cranston/The Shadow. As a filmmaker, I’ve seen a lot of auditions over the years, but this kid’s remains one of the most memorable. He put his whole chest into The Shadow’s maniacal laugh.
I hope he’s still acting. Obviously, he wasn’t cast because…well, child. But I’ll say this: I saw the show live and I don’t remember the lead at all.
Just before I turned 30, a local comic book shop in Grand Rapids held a going-out-of-business sale. That’s when I first saw the covers for Dynamite’s comic book run of The Shadow. They were horrifying, surreal, and beautiful. I bought as many as I could, and thus began my hobby of buying issues of The Shadow based solely on the covers. It didn’t matter if I was missing part of the collection or had doubles; I wasn’t even reading them. It was just about the artwork.
Those Dynamite covers had such an impact on me that I even referenced them when making my horror short film Ain’t Ready for the Graveyard Yet.
For the longest time, directing The Shadow was just a fantasy. But I figured that I could emulate what I loved about that imagery in my own movies.
As preparation for making this fan film, I’ve since read most of the Dynamite issues. Shout out to Hoopla, the app that lets you read comic books for free with your library card. Additionally, I’ve read DC’s 1970s run, their series The Shadow Strikes!, and a few Dark Horse comics here and there.
Lately, I’ve been reading the original pulp stories. A daunting task, as there are more than 300 novels! Thankfully, I found a really good resource which helped me narrow down which books to read. Another shout-out, this time to Old-School Crimefighters on Tumblr for their list ‘So you wanna read The Shadow.’
Okay, that’s the How, but Why do I like The Shadow?
I think what first attracted me to the character was that he has all the hallmarks of a villain: black clothes, a creepy voice, and a sinister laugh. Even his use of guns. It all plays against your expectations of a good guy.
To the bad guys, The Shadow is the villain, terrorizing the underworld. A monster fighting monsters.
There’s the famous intro from the old Shadow radio program: “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? TheShadow knows.” Screenwriter David Koepp explores that in the film. Maybe The Shadow knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men because of his own heart of darkness.
Dynamite picks up on that idea in their version. The Shadow becomes a story of atonement, of reigning in your own darker instincts.
I find heroic monsters and monstrous heroes fascinating. That’s why I like Hellboy.
And that’s what I was trying to do with the Harvey character in Ain’t Ready. What if our hero was the villain? Are there times when some primal part of us wants that kind of crusader on our side? What does that say about us?
While writing the script for my adaptation of The Shadow and reading the pulps, I discovered something that made me connect to the character in a new way—as a filmmaker. In his war against injustice, The Shadow recruits people to be his agents. People with different skills and abilities, all working together to accomplish their mission, all overseen and steered by The Shadow. He knows how to utilize his agents to the best of their abilities. The Shadow is a producer.
Finally, I also find the time period The Shadow is set in interesting. The Shadow Magazine was published in the 30s and 40s. As I was studying that era, I started seeing similarities between what happened then and what’s happening now. We all know the adage about history repeating itself.
I believe The Shadow really is synonymous with that era. His creation and popularity perhaps indicate American sentiment at the time. Various authors have tried to modernize him or send him into the future, but I think he works best in the era when his stories were originally written. Which means I’m making a period piece.
Period pieces are complicated, and they’re not cheap. If my Kickstarter is successful, a large share of the money will go into costumes, props, and sets to make sure the film feels authentic to the time. Please consider following the Kickstarter page to help me accomplish that:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/delarosa/theshadowfanfilm