Over the next few weeks the internet will be exploding with excitement over the new Star Wars movie. This is great news for all movie fans, but it does mean that some things get lost in the shuffle. You see before The Force Awakens, way back in 1979 there was a movie which also focused on a planet far, far away. This planet however was hellishly cold, had decayed and shrunken dwarf corpses working on it (a little like jawas I guess) and had a sinister Tall Man in charge of the proceedings.
The movie was Phantasm and much like the Star Wars movies it has a universe all its own, filled with recurring characters and a following story arc. The films even have their own villain in black, actor Angus Scrimm, The Tall Man himself. What it has that Star Wars never had is flying silver spheres that drill into peoples skulls! The film is getting a 4K makeover from the original negative and has director Don Coscarelli on hand to.
The other thing that binds these two movies together is a certain company called Bad Robot, which has teamed up with Paramount Pictures to make this happen. So Star Wars The Force Awakens director J.J.Abrams is getting in on the Phantasm movie action!
This restoration is great news for the fans of the franchise. The copies of the first movie have never been great. Remembering watching the VHS rental copy with its grainy quality does bring back fond memories, but to see the picture in as good a condition as this image below is very exciting.
No information has been given on when we will see this version of the movie, but with the next sequel Ravager hopefully coming sooner rather than later, you would imagine it will be sometime soon.
To read more about the The Tall Man, check out our Phantasm review. To read up on the role The Tall Man has to play in the movies then you can read this article, and for some other awesome ’70s horror movies look here. If you prefer to see what is happening in the Star Wars universe then follow this link here for a collection of articles all on the Star Wars universe.
Images: Bad Robot, Paramount Pictures.
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