A Funny Coincidence

I was watching some parts of the LOTR Extended Version a while ago. I haven't yet committed to watching the whole thing, but I am really impressed by how it works from the beginning. I've watched the theatrical cut so many times, it's like seeing it all for the first time with the new scenes. I feel it all works so well, but at about three and a half hours, it may be a bit too long for some people. Good thing most of the people I travel with aren't that kind of people.
Anyway, from watching a movie with Sir Ian McKellen on DVD, I turned on to HBO and suddenly found myself watching the old Alec Baldwin comic book starrer, The Shadow (1994). And guess who's playing the befuddled professor Reinhardt Lane? Ian McKellen! Heh. I would NEVER have thought then that he'd eventually play pivotal roles in some of my favorite new movies (X-Men, LOTR). Pretty cool, actually.
Anyway, on The Shadow, it wasn't a big hit when it came out, and has sort of a TV movie feel. The action is pretty subdued but I think that John Lone's Shiwan Khan is a marvelous villain with a lot of great dialogue and scenes (and the stuff with the telekinesis I feel was just ahead of its time then). Lamont Cranston is a cool hero, and Baldwin nails him. I wonder how great an updated Shadow movie would do today? Whatever...