With director Sam Raimi no longer directing Spider-Man, one has to wonder what he'll be working on.   Many thought he would focus on the film adaption of the popular World of Warcraft video game, but a reboot of The Shadow may be next on deck.  IESB is reporting that Raimi, who was already set to produce The Shadow, may be considering directing the film as well.

I'll admit it, the 1994 film version of The Shadow, starring Alec Baldwin as the title character, is a guilty pleasure.  Sure it was super cheesy but most of the comic book films were back then, and I loved them for it.  As such, the thought of Raimi, known for his often campy take on content, is a perfect match for this film in my opinion.  Don't worry though; from the sounds of it The Shadow will follow a more contemporary vision, something on par with Batman Begins.

Hit the jump for more on what we can expect from a new iteration of The Shadow.

The script written by Siavash Farahanl, of which you can find a very detailed synopsis of over at IESB, is clearly R-rated with an in-your-face dark tone.  Just how dark is it?  Well, here's a brief summary:

"There is nudity and some brutal fight scenes. A man thrown into meat grinder and coming out as ground beef on the other side. Broken bones at every turn. Body parts strewn around a train station. Hookers servicing males."

That description may sound extreme, but if you read the original comic series it was pretty intense.  Furthermore, with films like The Dark Knight and the upcoming Kick-Ass, movie-goers have come to enjoy vigilante heroes.  The anti-hero is a big commodity right now so The Shadow is a natural fit for these times.  We'll finally get to see a film in the true spirit of The Shadow instead of something like the watered down Baldwin version.

Speaking of spirit, which leads me to the main concern I have for this character.  Frank Miller's The Spirit, which came out 2008 kind of flopped.  Did I say, "kind of", I meant flopped.  That said, I really enjoyed the film, but I don't think audiences understood what he was going for, nor did they know anything about the character.  Hopefully The Shadow doesn't fall prey to the same circumstance.

It seems natural for Raimi to take the helm of The Shadow before heading into World of Warcraft.  The Shadow script is near complete whereas World of Warcraft just got a writer on board.  Raimi's no stranger to comic book films so I have no doubt he'll bring us a modern take on this great character with a possible return to his campy roots to please the purists out there.