The Shadow from 1994 was the first big budget Hollywood attempt to make a film about the classic pulp anti-hero. Did they succeed? We investigate. The film was directed by Russell Mulcahy, written by David Koepp, based on the work of Walter B. Gibson, and produced by Martin Bregman.
On this track we cover:
- Creating a modern retro action adventure
- The origin of The Shadow
- The pulps and the radioplays
- Visual effects
- The utter implausibility of being able to cloud men's minds.
- And David talks about Alec Baldwin's hair
DOWNLOAD
Download the mp3 file here. Link.
Subscribe to the commentary podcast in iTunes. Link.
STATS
Participants: David Bjerre and Dennis Rosenfeld.
Day of recording: December 8th, 2011.
Version: German Bluray version, Netflix, or Fullscreen NTSC DVD.
Movie runtime: 1.47.25.
SCREENSHOTS
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| Tibet matte painting by Matte World. |
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| Green screen Alec Baldwin in front of a model hut and model mountain in this Matte World shot. |
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| The horrible painted backdrop. |
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| Matte painting by Illusion Arts. |
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| Aaaaw! I saw her first! |
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| The split-focus shot. |
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| The spectacular Illusion Arts matte painting, using the same street set twice. |
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| Early CGI face by R/Greenberg Associates. |
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| 9 out of 10 megalomaniacs now recommend smoking. |
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| You wouldn't like me when I'm William. |
LITERATURE
Cinefantastique, No. 25, vol. 4 (August 1994)
- Article by Mark A. Altman
- Additional text by George Zebrowski, Tim Prokop, and Dan Scapperotti
Cinefex, No. 60 (December 1994), article by Mark Cotta Vaz
Starlog, Issue #205 (August 1994), article by Will Murray
Starburst, Issue #195 (November 1994), article by Alan Jones
Walter B. Gibson and The Shadow, by Thomas J Shimeld
The Shadow Scrapbook, by Walter B Gibson
The Shadow novelization, by James Luceno
The Pulps.
- A complete list of stories. Link.
- Reviews of the stories. Link.
AUDIO/VIDEO
Bluray special features.
The radioplays. Link 1. Link 2.
The Shadow Strikes (1937). Download.
International Crime (1938). Download.
LINKS
Shadow Fan Site. Link.
IMDb. Link.
Wikipedia. Link.
