What is "darkman"

Darkman is a 1990 American superhero action film directed and co-written by Sam Raimi. It is based on a short story Raimi wrote that paid homage to Universal's horror films of the 1930s. The film stars Liam Neeson as Peyton Westlake, a scientist who is attacked and left for dead by a ruthless mobster, Robert Durant ( Larry Drake), after his girlfriend, an attorney ( Frances McDormand), runs afoul of a corrupt developer ( Colin Friels).

Unable to secure the rights to either The Shadow or Batman, Raimi decided to create his own superhero and struck a deal with Universal Studios to make his first Hollywood studio film. He was subjected to a grueling screenwriting process and equally difficult post-production battle with the studio.

The design and creation of the makeup effects required to turn Liam Neeson into Darkman were the handiwork of makeup effects artist Tony Gardner, who also cameos in the film as the Lizard Man in the carnival Freak Show sequence.

Darkman was generally well received by critics and performed well at the box office, grossing almost $49 million worldwide, well above its $16 million budget. This financial success spawned two direct-to-video sequels, Darkman II: The Return of Durant (1995) and Darkman III: Die Darkman Die (1996), as well as comic books, video games, and action figures. Over the years, Darkman has become regarded as a cult film.

Darkman was developed by Ocean Software (Painting By Numbers on the NES version) and published by Ocean Software in 1991. It was released for the ZX Spectrum, NES, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64. It was also ported to the Game Boy and Atari ST. The game's plot is loosely based on the film of the same name.

In this side-scrolling platformer, the player controls Darkman, a superhero who can jump, kick and punch, as well as swing from a rope during action sequences between levels. In each level, Darkman disguises himself as the boss of the level, whom he must defeat before the time limit elapses. Tying into the plot of the film, Darkman wears masks of various gangsters who are responsible for his disfigurement, but his disguise dissolves after being exposed to sunlight for too long. The character changes into a different member of the evil gang in each level, taking on their attack moves as well as their face.

In-between levels, Darkman must photograph his quarry before he can make a mask of them. These scenes involve moving the cursor to take a picture of the gangster. The better the photo accuracy, the more time Darkman is granted to complete the subsequent level. The final level is the most faithful to the film, and takes place on a skyscraper under construction.

Darkman can refer to:

• Darkman, a 1990 film directed by Sam Raimi
• Darkman (character), the protagonist of the film of the same name
• Darkman (video game), a video game based on the film
• a German rapper, Nana (rapper)
• a boss in the Mega Man series; see Mega Man 5

Darkman (real name Peyton Westlake) is a title character and the protagonist of the 1990 superhero film Darkman and its sequels, Darkman II: The Return of Durant and Darkman III: Die Darkman Die. The character originated in a short story written by the film's director, Sam Raimi, titled "The Darkman," and is based on the Universal Pictures' movie monsters while retaining traits of the DC Comics WWII disfigured hero the Unknown Soldier. He was portrayed by Liam Neeson in the original film and Arnold Vosloo in the sequels.