It ’s already part of Star Wars : The Force Awakens lore that Captain Phasma is name after Don Coscarelli ’s 1979 religious cult horror classic Phantasm . evidently , JJ Abrams is a fan . But how did the regaining — and Abrams ’ involvement — issue forth about ? A unexampled interview with Coscarelli reveals some juicy specifics .
Coscarelli — who also made Bubba Ho - Tep and The Beastmaster — is a fascinating and enthusiastic hombre , and the whole interview ( conducted at South by Southwest by Crave Online ) is well deserving learn . Buthere ’s what he saysabout his first conversation with Abrams about the restoration , which materialise longer ago than you might think :
It start a loooong prospicient time ago in a graveyard far , far away . J.J. Abrams called up , oh , about 12 eld ago , back when he still doing television stuff and nonsense . I did n’t know who he was . He said “ I ’m a TV manufacturer , and I hump Phantasm . ” And we started talking about it . In fact , at the fourth dimension , I think we were terminate up Bubba Ho - Tep . And I got a little worry with the editing process , and I was having hassle making that movie number together . And I bring it over and shew it to him and we hung out and he was a real cool guy . And , over the days , from time to fourth dimension we stayed in touch . I introduced him to Angus Scrimm , and he ended up putting Angus into a recurring function on his Alias TV serial publication . Angus really revalue that and really enjoyed it .
Flash - forward to about a yr and a half ago , I catch another call from J.J. and he need to sieve Phantasm for his workers over at his company Bad Robot . And I state him that the only choice he really had was my scratched - up old 35 millimeter photographic print , or the received - def DVD . Those were n’t really enceinte choices , so he said “ Oh , we got ta secure that ! ” So he put [ me ] in touch with their head of spot - production , a guy wire named Ben Rosenblatt , and he came up with this plan as to how to restore the movie expeditiously . So that ’s how it started .
Angus Scrimm , of course , played the iconic improbable Man in Phantasm .
In the interview , Coscarelli says that in addition to cleaning up the image and erasing some optical errors that had long bugged him , he was able to restore the sound and “ enhance ” one special effect ( though he does n’t reveal which ) . Back in December , Coscarellitold Entertainment Weeklythat he ’s been “ talking to a number of citizenry ” about showing the effervescent new Phantasm on big screens , in addition to the inevitable DVD / Blu - ray release .
And just in case you did n’t already realize it ’s a killer time to be a Phantasm lover , in another South by Southwest interview , Coscarelli said that the series - conclude Phantasm 5 , which contains the late Scrimm ’s last carrying out , is amount “ very , very soon . ”
Don CoscarelliHorrorJJ AbramsMovies
Daily Newsletter
Get the best technical school , skill , and acculturation news in your inbox day by day .
News from the future , delivered to your present .
You May Also Like
