Darkman: Difference between revisions

Darkman
Directed by	Sam Raimi
Written by	Sam Raimi (story & screenplay), Chuck Pfarrer, Ivan Raimi, Daniel Goldin, Joshua Goldin (screenplay)
Produced by	Robert G. Tapert
Starring	Liam Neeson, Frances McDormand, Colin Friels, Larry Drake
Music by	Danny Elfman
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	August 24, 1990
Running time	96 min.
Language	English
Budget	$16,000,000

Darkman is the title of a 1990 film directed by Sam Raimi, starring Liam Neeson.

Template:Spoiler Scientist Peyton Westlake (played by Liam Neeson) is developing a new type of synthetic skin to aid burn victims. He is continually frustrated with the results because the skin rapidly disintegrates 99 minutes after exposure to light. Despite his devotion to the project, he cannot get past this limitation. His girlfriend, attorney Julie Hastings (played by Frances McDormand), uncovers a crooked real estate plot by corrupt developer Louis Strack, Jr. (played by Colin Friels) and mobster Robert G. Durant (played by Larry Drake). In retaliation, Durant and his minions attack and injure Westlake then blow up his lab. The blast throws Westlake clear of the lab; he survives but is hideously burned. He is brought to a hospital and subjected to a radical treatment in which the pain centers of his brain are destroyed. Removing this sensory input gives him increased strength due to adrenal overload and keeps his injuries from incapacitating him, but it also destabilizes his moods and mental state. He escapes the hospital and sets out to get revenge on Strack and Durant, and to try to re-establish his relationship with Hastings. To hide his scarring and blend into crowds, Westlake rebuilds enough of his equipment to make his synthetic skin, but is unable to overcome the 99-minute window of integrity. Thus, he can only appear as himself (or later as others, whose features he is able to duplicate) in public briefly, and otherwise wears bandages and a trenchcoat in his identity as "Darkman."

In this 1994 direct-to-video sequel, Scientist Peyton Westlake (now played by Arnold Vosloo, more widely known for portraying the titular character in The Mummy) continues to work on his synthetic skin, whilst fighting crime as Darkman.

Despite looking as if he had been killed in the first movie, Robert G. Durant survived and was in fact comatose in the time since the helicopter explosion that occurred during the first film's climax, and returns to take over organised crime in the city.

Trying to perfect his synthetic skin with the assistance of Dr. David Brinkman (Jesse Collins), Durant turns up, and in a scene reminiscent of the first movie, Brinkman is tortured and killed, leaving the work in ruins. It is up to Darkman once again to disguise himself as members of Durant's gang and he ultimately manages to destroy them from within.

Whilst Westlake is infiltrating Durant's gang, reporter Jill Randall while trying to prove that the facts and actions of Durant's gang show that Durant is back in business, discovers that Peyton Westlake is still alive.

In the second direct-to-video Darkman sequel, released in 1996, Peyton Westlake (again played by Vosloo) steals a crate of money from drug lord Peter Rooker (Jeff Fahey) to continue his research. Rooker is determined to find out how Darkman has his superior strength, and enlists the aid of Dr. Bridget Thorne (Darlanne Fluegel), a new character retroactively put into Darkman's origin as one of the doctors who first treated Westlake body after he was burnt in the first movie. Obtaining a sample of Westlake's adrenaline, Dr. Thorne develops a designer steroid which enhances a person's strength at the cost of their mental agility.

Learning of what has happened, Darkman plans his revenge against Rooker by impersonating him while in the company of his family and colleagues in order to bring him down. It is up to Darkman to destroy the formula to the steroid and seek vengeance against Rooker, but not at the cost of Rooker's wife and child.

This film shifts some of the focus from action to drama, during Peyton's scenes with Rooker's wife (played by Roxann Biggs-Dawson), and his child, reminding him of how life could have been for him.

Darkman III: Die, Darkman, Die was originally intended to be the first sequel to the original Darkman, but when Larry Drake became available to reprise his role of Durant, this entry was moved back until Darkman II: The Return of Durant had been finished and released.

Universal Television financed a 30-minute television pilot based on Darkman, which was made sometime in 1992. The pilot retold the origin of the character (with some alterations) and introduced several new characters. Christopher Bowen starred in the role of Peyton Westlake/Darkman and Larry Drake reprised his role of Robert G. Durant. As in the film, Westlake is attacked and left for dead by Durant and his gang. Template:Endspoiler

During a scene in the movie Darkman, Peyton/Darkman cries out "JULIE!!!", and this is actually voiced by Bruce Campbell, good friend of Director Sam Raimi and from Evil Dead/Army Of Darkness fame. He also appears at the end of the movie, after Peyton/Darkman leaves Julie and walks into the crowd. Darkman dons a new face and takes one last look back. The actor who plays this part of Darkman is, in fact, Bruce Campbell.

One of Durant's henchman in the movie Darkman is played by Director Sam Raimi's brother, Ted Raimi.

Darkman has been the subject of two Marvel Comics series (one a movie adaptation, the other an original sequel), numerous novels, as well as computer and video games. Merchandising for the character all but disappeared for close to a decade until SOTA Toys obtained the rights to make a Darkman action figure. SOTA president Jerry Macaluso was interviewed by Dread Central:

"This leads to an interesting story on Darkman. Universal didn’t know they owned the merchandise rights. It didn’t show up on any of their merchandise sheets. I had to convince them to spend a little time and have their lawyers look into it. I knew at the time that film was made Sam (Raimi) didn’t have the power to retain those rights so it HAD to be Universal even though they said they didn’t have them. Turns out I was right and afterwards Darkman started to show up in all their catalogs of films available to license..."[1]

In 2005, SOTA produced two versions of their Darkman action figure (including interchangeable head and hands to allow the figure to be either bandaged or revealing his scarred visage), as well as a Darkman statue.

Dynamite Entertainment announced 2006 its agreement with Universal Studios Consumer Products Group to produce original comics based on Darkman, promising a showdown with another Sam Raimi character, which leads to likely Ash from Army of Darkness or even Xena: Warrior Princess, and in June 2006 confirmed a bimonthly limited series entitled Darkman vs. the Army of Darkness would begin in August. A regular solo series is expected to follow but Dynamite has stated they are waiting to see how the crossover fares first.

• The Passion of the Darkman the one and only fan community in the net totally devoted to the prince of night, Peyton Westlake.
• Darkman page at Fake Shemps site
• the Darkman database
• Darkman at The Internet Movie Database
• Darkman II: The Return of Durant at The Internet Movie Database
• Darkman III: Die Darkman Die at The Internet Movie Database
• Darkman page located at NES HQ (NES Video Game)