Movies: Joseph C. Nemec III designs sets--from an Art Deco club to a Tibetan palace--for a film on the radio hero.

Who knows what imaginative designs lurk in the mind of Joseph C. Nemec III?

The Shadow knows.

And so will movie audiences when Universal’s action-adventure “The Shadow” is released in theaters next summer. The Shadow, the master of illusion and defender of justice has been the subject of numerous novels, magazines and comic books. Orson Welles was the seductive voice of the superhero on the famed ‘40s radio series.

In the film version, Alec Baldwin plays the suave Lamont Cranston, who, as the Shadow, is an unseen force for good who operates outside the law, with the help of a network of ordinary citizens who pledge their allegiance to him. Penelope Ann Miller, Sir Ian McKellen, Tim Curry and John Lone, as the Shadow’s nemesis Shiwan Khan, also star.

As production designer, Nemec began working eight months ago on “The Shadow.” It’s been a mammoth undertaking: He’s created more than 60 sets--dramatic, retro and stylized in look--in and around Los Angeles and on the Universal lot. Sets are being built on six sound stages at Universal. With the help of two art directors, seven of the studio’s back-lot city streets were transformed into New York, circa the late 1930s.

Needless to say, Nemec, 45, who comes across as a genuinely nice guy, is a tad tired. “It’s a very quick shoot,” said Nemec, who also was production designer on “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” “Patriot Games,” “Judgment Night” and the upcoming “The Getaway.” “It’s probably going to end up 64 days. We started out on ‘Terminator 2’ with 108 days.”

“The Shadow” also is a very complicated project. “On a more normally scheduled project, you might be (on a set) for two or three days,” he explained. “Maybe we are there a day, or a day-and-a-half. There’s almost no time to stop and catch my breath and say, ‘Let me check where I am going and make sure I have got my hand on everything.’ It’s not as bad as doing episodic TV. But I must say, having done some of that has helped me in this project.”

Director Russell Mulcahy (“Highlander”) has been impressed with Nemec. “He’s been terrific,” he said enthusiastically. “This is a real design film. Everything was worked out early on about what the sets had to accomplish. A set has to look lived in, having a character unto itself. He’s very good at that.”

And reliable. “All of our sets have been all dressed and ready every time we move on to them,” Mulcahy said. “We’re just one set behind him all the time.”

Nemec was inspired after reading David Koepp’s (“Carlito’s Way,” “Jurassic Park”) script to have fun with his designs. “We wanted it to be realistic,” Nemec said. “But sometimes we stretched that a little bit.”

“Every set he’s done is magnificent,” enthused producer Martin Bregman (“Carlito’s Way”). “If he sees it the same way you do and if the director sees it the same way you do, then you got a shot. What he’s done was to create this fun, very, very stylish, very, very rich world. He’s as good as you are going to get.”

With “The Shadow,” Nemec has been able to create new kinds of sets. The Cobalt Club, Cranston’s lavish Art Deco nightclub hangout, gave him the opportunity to “capture some of the old 1930s and ‘40s Hollywood kind of sets and layer it around the edge with some realistic detailing. There are some very heavy ornate detailing within that period.”

Even more fun was Khan’s temple and palace. “When I got into the show and started researching and began to learn more about Tibetan architecture and its influences, the temple and the palace were real fun because they were so different from the rest of the show,” he said. “The finale set, which we are working on right now, is Khan’s throne room, which is inside a circular restaurant atop the Hotel Monolith.”

Nemec also wanted his designs to hark back to childhood. “When you are a kid, (the places) you imagine are very real, but they are just bigger. We tried to do some of that in our spaces, like taking ballrooms and turning them into living rooms and taking very large living rooms and making them bedrooms.”

Because “The Shadow” employs numerous matte paintings, miniatures and special effects, Nemec is closely working with visual effects supervisor Alison Savitch. The two previously collaborated on “T2,” as well as Cameron’s “The Abyss,” on which Nemec worked as art director.

“We are really used to working very closely together,” Savitch said. “He’s got full-size sets and I’ve got smaller sets. I think I’ve never met a production designer who is better at understanding the concept of effects.”

Originally an architect at a firm in his native Arkansas, Nemec didn’t have designs on Hollywood until after age 30, when he transferred to a firm in Los Angeles. Once he was here, a lifelong interest in acting and theatrical lighting led to an interview at Universal. “I happened to hit it just right when the roster was such that they could bring a new person in.”

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He worked as a set designer on several features, including 1981’s “Ghost Story.” After working as an art director on “The Abyss,” “Alien Nation,” “Fatal Beauty” and “Extreme Prejudice,” he made the leap to production designer on the low-budget 1989 feature “Fear,” which went straight to video.

It was director Walter Hill who gave Nemec his big break, hiring him as production designer on the big-budget 1990 Paramount release, “Another 48 HRS.”

Nemec hasn’t lined up his next project--he hasn’t had time. “I’ve been fortunate to have three projects back to back,” he said with a smile. “I’m looking to recoup a little bit after this one.”