The Flash

The Flash! Which Flash? Barry Allen, Bart Allen, Wally West, you choose. Me personally, I think it's the original, not Jay Garrick original, but silver age Barry Allen original. I like the washed out feel to this. i decided not to make the Flash overly muscly because he need to look quick and agile, though you have to give him some muscle, because he still needs to knock the stuffing out of Gorilla Grodd.

I love the Flash, because as we all know:

"No-one can outrun The FLASH!"

SHAZAM!

One of my favourite characters ever. All orphan Billy Batson has to do is shout the magic word SHAZAM! and he turns into Captain Marvel. 

PERFECT MOVIE: THE SHADOW

Alright. I know it has been a few weeks since I last did this, but I have seriously been struggling with the Flash Gordon cast. Basically I am stuck on Flash and Dale. So that will come eventually, I just need more work on it. With that said let's dive into this edition of Perfect Movie starring my favourite Pulp hero, The SHADOW!

THE MORE YOU KNOW!
Originally a narrator for the radio, the character was so popular that he was given his own book The Shadow Magazine in 1931. Soon he gained his own radio show, which was a big deal back then, with Orson Welles providing the voice of the character. These radio shows are fantastic and I listen to them all the time. The Shadows abilities vary due to the media. In the original magazine he was only a masked vigilante, then in the radio series he was an invisible avenger, which he gained travelling east. This is great because he is just a voice that tricks the villains into "Spilling the beans" as they panic under his reputation. 


THE CAST


Let's start with cast this time.


The Shadow/ Lamont Cranston: The Shadow has a distinct face, with the long crooked nose and hypnotic eyes. Plus he needs a great voice, with a sinister laugh and wicked sense of humour. If this were the 80s I would cast Timothy Dalton. However this is not, therefore I choose Hugo Weaving, who we have all seen in The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003) and The Matrix films (1999- 2003)- huh he sure likes trilogies! However we also saw him in V For Vendetta as the only thing that actually worked in that film. In that he provided a dark sense of humour and he wasn't as monotonous as Elrond or Mr. Smith (which was their character). So there we are Hugo Weaving as The Shadow and his alter-ego "wealthy young man about town" Lamont Cranston.

Margot Lane: Margot Lane was Lamont Cranston's assistant who often helped The Shadow in his investigations. She knew his identity, which is something I always like. She was never a damsel-in-distress, in fact she often saved The Shadow's life. For Margot we need someone who has that classic 1930s/40s vibe. I was going to say Marion Cotillard, but I want to save her for my Batman episode. I think I am going to go for someone younger, just so that it doesn't seem like a middle-age film. Plus I don't want Lamont and Margot to have a relationship, because he always seemed like he was only concentrating of crime fighting. So I am going to choose Carey Mulligan, because she is young, but has that old world feel, plus she's a good actress which helps.

There weren't a lot of reoccurring villains in the radio show (that's what I am familiar with), so I guess it down to the crew.

CREW

What I love about The Shadow is that it was dark, with a lot of plots involving the wrong man in jail. With that we need a director who has experience in the gangster/ street setting, but also with dark and fantastic. With that it seems obvious to choose Matthew Vaughn, who started his career with Layer Cake and more recently X- Men: First Class, then somewhere in the middle with Kick- Ass. He is a very competent director who has dealings with both.

I would want the film to be set in the pulp era, just because that is all the fun, but it probably wouldn't be a successful move. I would expect to see it in the modern setting, but I would like it to have that feel of a gritty 40s set, kind of like the first Burton Batman. 

Wait a minute, with the Nolan Batman films at an end, what's next for the Caped Crusader? Looks like it's my duty to find out! See... the Oli-Signal!!