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The year was 1930. To boost sales of their Detective Story Magazine, pulp publishers Street and Smith decided to sponsor a radio program where an announcer read stories from the magazine.
Rather than referring to him as "the guy who reads the stories," a man at Street and Smith's ad agency suggested naming him The Shadow.
Soon customers began asking for a pulp magazine of that name.
No such magazine existed at the time -- but Street and Smith knew an opportunity when they saw one, and quickly decided to created just such a title.
In time The Master of Darkness recruited numerous agents, among them the mysterious Burbank.
Little is known about Burbank, other than the fact that he is an "old friend" of the Master of Darkness, and that his mission is to facilitate communication among agents.
Columbia has acquired the screen rights to "The Shadow," for a big-screen adaptation to be produced by Raimi and Josh Donen. Michael Uslan is also producing.
Siavash Farahani will write the screenplay. Farahani's credits include "Max Payne," a video game adaptation for 20th Century Fox.
This movie has long been a dream project for Raimi.
"I've been a passionate fan ever since I was a kid and have long dreamed of bringing this character to the screen," Raimi says.
The Shadow copyright Advance magazine Publishers, Inc./ The Condé Nast Pubs.
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 REPORT 6:
Meet MAX PAYNE!
Siavash Farahani has been hired to write the screenplay for Sam Raimi's new Shadow movie. Who is Siavash Farahani? It seems Farahani's only featured resume item is the video game "Max Payne," which he wrote.
So let's take a brief look at the game, and the main character, and see if Farahani's writing skills seem up to the job of portraying the Master of Darkness in a favorable light. We'll start with the overview screen, pictured below:
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OVERVIEW: "Max Payne is a man with nothing to lose in the violent, cold urban night. A fugitive undercover cop framed for murder, and now hunted by cops and the mob, Max is a man with his back against the wall, fighting a battle he cannot hope to win. Prepare for a new breed of deep action game. Prepare for pain..."
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DIALOGUE: Well, the clichés are flowing fast and furiously, no doubt about it, but the dialogue isn't half bad. Reflects a certain snappy Tarantino-ish, 1940s pulpy feel.
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BLAM! And the action poses in this game are definitely pulp-esque. Not much to go on, I know, but based on this scant evidence, I'd say Siavash Farahani, at a minimum, knows the genre. Let us all hope he does the Knight of Darkness justice!
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THE ORIGINAL RADIO SHADOW:
Broadway actor JAMES LACURTO
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