Alec Baldwin has not been in a superhero movie by DC or Marvel, but he did play one in the ‘90s. Baldwin played the gunslinger, Shadow, in the film The Shadow, which is an adaptation of the popular radio and pulp novel superhero. The 1994 movie was a commercial failure, but it has since gained a cult following.
Baldwin’s performance was praised, and so were the movie’s visual effects and production design. However, its screenplay drew the largest criticism, and the commercial failure of the movie resulted in a planned franchise being shelved. As the world hits it big with superhero franchises, The Shadow remains an underrated masterpiece.
Alec Baldwin’s Superhero Movie Has a Spider-Man Connection
After the success of Tim Burton’s Batman, dark superhero films were all the rage, and many borrowed the gothic and gritty imagery of the film. Alec Baldwin’s The Shadow, which was based on the popular radio show and pulp novel series of the same name, was just one among the many gritty superhero films made in the ‘90s.
Several directors reportedly hoped to adapt the superhero into a movie, including Robert Zemeckis and Sam Raimi. Raimi, in fact, was reportedly pursuing the project heavily and wanted to adapt the original IP, but could not as Zemeckis was working on it at the time. Raimi reportedly then converted that story into an original superhero story, Darkman.
Producer of Darkman, Robert Tapert, revealed how the Spider-Man filmmaker ended up making his first superhero film after a failed attempt at adapting the Shadow (via THR).
[Darkman] was a labor of love for Sam Raimi. He tried very hard to make a movie about [pulp novel and radio character] The Shadow, but that proved impossible because at that time, it was going to be made by Bob Zemeckis. So Sam said, ‘I am going to create my own superhero and take aspects of other superheroes and incorporate them into the character of Darkman.’
Darkman was released four years before The Shadow was made, with Zemeckis not even being involved. Jurassic Park writer David Koepp was given the gig, and he ultimately wrote the final script, with Russell Mulcahy directing. Koepp also wrote Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man.
The Shadow Should Have Been the Start of a Great Franchise
On paper, Alec Baldwin’s The Shadow seems like a rip-off of Batman. It follows a man trained in martial arts and mystical powers in Tibet, who returns to his city to fight crime as a mask-wearing vigilante. It is basically Batman. However, it seemed to be the other way around, as Batman creators Bob Kane and Bill Finger modeled him after Shadow.
Ironically, the success of Batman would have paved the way for the Shadow’s own adaptation, but the film’s failure at the box office, where it earned only $32 million against a $40 million budget (via Box Office Mojo), did not give it the same level of success. The film was set to start a franchise that never came to be because of its failure.
While the movie did end up getting a game adaptation and a novelization, there has yet to be a reboot for the same, especially now that the film has a cult following.
What do you think about The Shadow? Comment below.
The Shadow is available to rent on Amazon Prime Video.
