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 THE AMAZING SECRET ORIGIN OF BURBANK - CONCLUSION
BURBANK GOES HOLLYWOOD!
Encouraged by the runaway success of Superman The Movie and Tim Burton's hugely successful dark vision of Batman, Universal decided to try their luck with a big-budget, star-studded Shadow feature film in 1994.
With a plot adaptated mostly from Gibson’s Shiwan Khan stories, THE SHADOW starred Alec Baldwin as Lamont Cranston/ The Shadow, Penelope Ann Miller as Margo Lane, and John Lone as Shiwan Khan. What about our man Burbank? Well, he went to Hollywood too!
To conclude our six-part Amazing Secret Origin of Burbank series, let's follow the process of creating Movie Burbank, from screenplay and storyboards to casting and finished product. We'll start with the description of Burbank given in the novelization of the movie, written by James Luceno, based on the screenplay by David Keopp. |
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FROM STORYBOARD TO SCREEN
The storyboard seen below shows a secret message from one of The Shadow's agents being delivered into the hands of Burbank in his hidden station. The message is contained inside an envelope marked with a seal showing the silouhette of the Master of Darkness... |
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The scene looked like this in the finished film: |
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| Notice how the fragile envelope has been replaced with a much more plausible container: a pneumatic tube of the type actually used in these antiquated, vacuum-tube contraptions. |
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Here's an overview of Burbank's "control center," as seen in the original storyboard... |
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Here's the same scene in the finished film... |
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And here's the scene as pictured on the Burbank Trading Card from the movie... |
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And finally, here's the scene as it looked in the June/July 1994 Dark Horse comic book adaptation of the movie, written by Joel Goss and Mike Kaluta, drawn by Kaluta: |
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CASTING THE CONTACT MAN!
Do you know who played role of Burbank in "The Shadow"? You hardly get a good look at him in the whole film! Here's the single frame where his face is totally visible: |
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Burbank was played by... Andre Gregory! A theater director as well as a film actor, Gregory played Reverend Spellgood in “The Mosquito Coast” (1986) and John the Baptist in “The Last Temptation of Christ” (1988), but Andre Gregory is most famous for “My Dinner with Andre” (1981), where, playing himself, he discusses his decidedly UN-Burbank-like doubts about the future of Western civilization with a dinner companion.
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Uh-oh! Playtime's over. It looks like the contact man is receiving an communication right now! |
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| Orders from The Shadow! Orders for Burbank! The contact man suddenly LEAVES his hidden station, and plunges into the dark, stormy night! |
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| A vital message is to be transmitted to ALL The Shadow's agents. From hand to hand, in the pouring rain, in the dead of night, the information is passed... |
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| The Master of Darkness is mobilizing his entire network of agents! Why? What is happening? What incredible event is about to take place? What fantastic master plan is being activated? |
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| A history-making message, addressed to every agent of The Shadow! That includes YOU, reader! The message has finally arrived, and the message is this... |
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